Runes
by Small Mistake
Summary: After Trigon is defeated and the world seems quiet, a new stranger appears in Jump City. Who is he, what are the source of his powers and what is a a returned Slade planning?
1. An Interesting Afternoon

1.

Robin yelled out as he came down, metal staff extended and slightly bent as he brought it down with all his strength. Cinderblock staggered back, dazed by the blow but far from defeated. He roared in anger but was drowned out by the sound of Starfire's blasts exploding against his indestructible skin. Cyborg kept up the Titan's offence, unloading his sonic cannon at Cinderblock's chest as he charged into the smoke but flew backwards with a yell as Cinderblock swiped and knocked him back. Beast Boy was forced to dodge in his eagle form as Cyborg flew past but flew straight into Cinderblock's closing fist. There was a squeak as Cinderblock tried to shatter Beast Boy's tortoise shell but unable to, hurled it like a baseball. Raven glided almost unperturbed by it as her eyes lit up white and her lips formed the words she had said a thousand times over. _Azarath Metrion Zinthos! _A wave of black energy struck out in the form of a tendril at Cinderblock's chest, wrapping him and immobilising his arms. Cinderblock looked up from his bindings as Cyclops landed with a massive right punch, there was a ringing as one of Robin's discs spun threw the air and burst open to wrap Cinderblock's ankles, Beast Boy finishing it up as a green triceratops stomped forward and hammered the stone Goliath with a swing of its massive head. Cinderblock toppled back slowly and with a massive bang and an eruption of dust as the ground split with fissures from the impact, he fell.

"We are victorious!" Starfire exclaimed as Cinderblock ceased to struggle.

"Try to keep him in jail this time" Robin muttered as the Jump City Authorities quickly moved in on the scene to apprehend the villain.

"Boo yah!" Cyborg chanted, his robotic arm reforming to become a hand once more. "The villain is down, the city is saved and my baby is for once not completely destroyed" he said, looking over to where the T-Car sat, its only flaw was the chrome sheen had been taken off by all the dust, nothing a wash wouldn't make short work of. "Only one thing left to do… PIZZA!"

"Are you coming Robin?" Raven asked as all but their leader turned back towards the car.

"Yeah" Robin said, still watching Cinderblock being taken away, the ever-present wrinkle in his brow as he wore his frown of thought, masked eyes narrowed. "Yeah."

An orange frisbee flew through the air of the park as a strange green dog chased it happily, a trail of slobber followed in the air behind its outstretched tongue. The wind caught the frisbee and lifted it up as the dog jumped and narrowly missed. In the midair, the dog suddenly shape-shifted into a green kangaroo, hit the ground and took an enormous jump, then changed into an elephant in the leap and reached out with its trunk to catch the frisbee, landing back on the ground again as the dog. It trotted back with pride, the frisbee clutched in its teeth as Cyborg took the frisbee from its mouth. "Okay, I'll give you a real challenge now" he told the dog, his arm pulling back, the lights on the panels brightening as he built up some power. "Fetch!" Cyborg yelled, his arm shooting around and the frisbee whizzing off. The dog changed into a green leopard and sprinted off with a growl. There was a scream as a family's picnic was disrupted by a charging overexcited leopard.

Raven opened one eye as the ground quaked minutely. "Could you go one day without being as loud as you possibly could?" She asked, her legs crossed as she floated three and a half feet off the ground, her meditations disturbed.

"They are partaking in the wondrous joy this day has to offer Raven!" Starfire exclaimed, her arms full of freshly picked flowers, a few in her hair. She gestured to the bunch in her hands. "Would you like to join me in the making of daisy chains?"

Raven's one open eye stared at her for a second before slamming closed. "No" she said flatly.

Robin was sitting on the ground, taking apart one of his various gadgets, checking every piece, panel and screw for the slightest imperfection. "What troubles you Robin?" Starfire asked.

Robin's eyes squinted as he clicked two pieces together, holding them up in the light to examine them. "We stopped Cinderblock. But that makes three attacks in as many weeks, and we have no idea what they're doing, what they're after or how they're connected. We only know they're all linked by one person."

"Slade" Cyborg said, his voice deepening with almost a hint of dread that crept into any of their voices when they said his name, save Raven who Slade tinged her voice with anger.

"I know he's gone" Robin said through gritted teeth, "but somehow it's like he's still there, lurking in the shadows, pulling the strings on some plan and we're always two steps behind as usual." His hand pulled into a tight fist. "I don't like being behind."

"Do not fear Robin" Starfire soothed, "we will find his plans like weeds and rip them out one by one, just like I have with these dandelions, though they are also incredibly gorgeous."

Robin pieced his gadget back together as Starfire sat down beside him, threading her dandelion and daisy stalks together. The sun shone, the birds sang and for a brief moment of happiness all was right with the world. As was often with the world of the Teen Titans though, it was never meant to last. Raven's eyes suddenly opened, her mouth parted open as she gasped. "What is it?" Robin asked, immediately alert.

"I sense someone" Raven said, still in her meditative state. "Someone like…"

"Slade?" Robin asked.

"Me" Raven replied, then an explosion ripped through the silence, making everyone jump to their feet. "Uh…" Beast Boy started, having changed back into his usual form, "what was that?"

A plume of smoke began to rise from just the other side of the park. "Trouble" Robin grunted. "Titans, go!"

The group rushed forward against the flow of screaming people fleeing the chaos. The burning car sat at the edge of the park, the hood of the car had a massive indent in it as if it had hit something indestructible, or something indestructible had hit it. "Look!" Beast Boy cried, pointing out with an outstretched finger at a figure who had been trying to escape attention. Robin's newly rebuilt bird-a-rang hammering into the tree trunk beside the figure served to tell him he had failed. The figure turned to the Titans, it was a boy, the same age as any of them. He had black hair that was longer than Robin's, it fell to cover his ears and touch the bottom of his neck, his eyes were hidden in the shade of his fringe. He was wearing a long black-sleeved shirt that covered all but his fingertips and a normal pair of pants, he looked just that; normal. Experience had taught the Titans that looks could be very deceiving though; none of them had dropped their guard.

"That's a bad way to react to a parking fine" Robin told him.

Raven was more interested in this new figure than she was usually with her missions, waiting for the boys to trade one-liners before erupting into a fight. He had been the one she had sensed, she knew it. She just didn't know why, and that was worrying her. "Does this guy have a name?" Beast Boy asked.

The stranger's face suddenly snapped into anger as he roared and charged straight at Beast Boy. Before any of them of could react, the stranger had leapt forward and swung with a kick that sent Beast Boy flying with a yell. "Titans, go!" Robin yelled, jumping with a spinning kick. The stranger dodged it and pushed at Robin's back, shoving the Boy Wonder away.

"We're gonna need something to put on your tombstone" Cyborg muttered as he moved in, his robotic hand transforming. "Until then, let's just put you on ice with the cryo-cannon!" He had barely finished his line before the figure had grabbed him by the end of the cannon and hurled him at Starfire, the energy ball she had hurled hitting him and the explosion throwing them both back.

"Dude, was this just all because I asked your name?" Beast Boy asked, rejoining the fray. "You don't have to tell us, it's cool! Cyborg makes up some great lines!" He then shifted into a grizzly bear as the figure moved at him but stopped as Raven pulled up a wall of dark energy out of the ground to come between them. He looked at her and his eyes widened as she threw a wave at him, his irises were the same violet as hers. He dived out of the way as she chased him with blasts. As much as she wanted to know who this stranger was, she wanted to protect her friends more. The stranger stepped in and out of both Raven and Starfire's attacks, jumping into the air and putting the alien between the three around to stop Raven from attacking momentarily. He pushed off her back and flipped through the air, landing lightly on the ground. "Stay away!" He yelled at them, or was it just to Raven, for it was her he was looking at. Beast Boy was not yet ready to take such advice just yet as a bull charged towards the attacker. The boy didn't even waver, drawing back a fist as the bull came closer before unleashing the punch. As he did, his sleeve fell back and Raven knew why she had sensed him. Glowing up his hand, his palm and the backs of his fingers were extensive designs, elaborate and gorgeous like henna, she had seen similar markings on her own arms when Trigon had attempted to bring her back to him before. Beast Boy's yell was audible as he flew through the air, Cyborg's catch the only thing saving him from worse injury. Both Starfire and Raven hesitated at the expression of both fear and anger in his eyes looking down at his hand before he turned to run, straight into Robin's staff, knocking him to the ground.

"Lights out" Robin said as he brought the tip down hard and hit him in the forehead, knocking him unconscious. The Titans paused for a moment as they caught their breath before Robin asked, "what do we do with him?"

"He was well-trained" Starfire said, looking down at him. "Yet I do not sense he wanted to hurt us."

"Speak for yourself" Beast Boy said, rubbing the back of his head.

"She's right" Raven said, "he was _afraid_ of hurting us."

"That doesn't change the fact that he's a criminal" Robin said, keeping his staff steady.

"We better make a choice soon" Cyborg said, a hand to the cybernetic side of his head, "authorities are on the way and I don't think they're gonna be happy with us about two incidents in one day."

"Just leave him for them" Beast Boy insisted, "he's not exactly the most super criminal we've ever fought."

"He just blew up a car with a tattoo!" Cyborg exclaimed, "that doesn't seem super to you?"

"Terra was a criminal once" Starfire said quietly.

Robin's eyes narrowed as the noise of sirens became obvious in the wind. "We'll take him with us back to the tower, see what we can learn" he declared. "I doubt anyone will be too upset if we borrow him just for a while."


	2. The Stranger

None of the Titans had left the medical bay for more than a minute since they had brought back their new interesting passenger. Beast Boy had been vehemently opposed to the entire idea but soon his anger had subsided to simple grumbling, annoyed that in the fight he had had his butt kicked the most out of any of them. Cyborg had configured the bed to restrain the teen while Robin was monitoring his vital signs looking for something special. Starfire was with him doing the same, but more out of interest in his health rather than the source of his powers. Raven was meditating, feeling his aura clash with hers and trying to divine his power that way. "It's not cybernetic" Cyborg said, a scanner retracting back into his arm. "Kid doesn't have so much as a cellphone."

"I don't see anything too amazing about his blood" Robin said, his back turned. "He's not alien, his powers aren't genetic."

"What about his skin markings?" Asked Starfire, "surely they hold the key to his significance? They lit up as he used his power, there has to be something about them that could help us discover who he is."

"Nothing special about them" Cyborg dismissed, "I checked the hand you described first, then the rest, no hidden written incantation in there, and we have quite the database thanks to Jinx." He gestured over to where their prisoner lay in the bed, electrodes attached to his his temples and other wires snaking from his hands and wrists. Cyborg had pushed back the sleeve to study the hand, then finding more tattoos, had removed the shirt to find tattoos painted all up the length of both his arms, the two linking through further ink across the tops of his shoulder blades and his collarbones. They were an endless amount of linking, spiralling and twisting designs, forming some sort of pattern that the Titans could not fathom, liking seeing an alien language for the first time. His clothes had hidden a muscular form, but slim, it did not look like this meta-human had lived an easy life of luxury before coming face-to-face with the Titans. His clothes were also well weathered, the pants had a hole worn in one of the knees and the pockets were stuffed with random bits of junk, an unknown significance attached to all of them.

"So is he just strong like Mammoth?" Beast Boy asked. "Cause we dealt with him plenty of times."

"There is something magic about him!" Starfire exclaimed, startling all of them, even Raven came out of her mediations, lowering her feet to the floor to stand. "And he is still a person, not a science project to be guessed and prodded at!"

"But we do need to find out something about him Star" Robin soothed, "he was a threat today, even you could see that."

Starfire's shoulder's sagged in defeat. "Just be gentle with him" she said quieter, almost to balance out the volume of her outburst. "Designs on one's own skin have great meaning amongst my people, representing a commitment few are willing to make. I do not wish to see someone who would make such a choice come to unnecessary harm for our curiosity." She left.

"I don't suppose you learnt anything new" Robin said to Raven after watching Starfire leave. She shook her head.

"His energy is… hard to define. I sense part of me, of my world in him, but he is not of that world. He lives here but is there, I can't understand him when he has no idea about himself. I can tell you one thing though" she said, getting the remaining Titan's interest. "These aren't tattoos" she said, stepping closer and brushing his arm with a finger. "They're runes, deep magic not even I understand fully."

"So Star was right, he is magic?" Beast Boy asked.

"In a way" Raven muttered, making them all groan with the imminence of another twisted complicated answer. "It's where he draws his power from, but he is not a magical being, usually a person shouldn't be able to survive the power of one rune, let alone all of these." Her finger ran along the line of one, feeling the mark etched in his skin, running deeper than the ink to conceal it, confirming what she already knew.

"So he's like you but not" Robin said. "Could he be half? One parent from each world? You said he's different from you but you're the daughter of Trigon, between you and any normal demon is a lot of weakened power. Maybe he just has a small amount of blood, enough to help him survive the runes."

"How did he get them too?" Cyborg added, "Last I checked this guy didn't have any extra arms to help him decorate his back."

"It's a mystery that can wait until tomorrow" Robin declared as rain began to hit the window, thunder rumbling in the dark clouds amongst the night sky. "Let's get some sleep and ask him in the morning. If Starfire's right, maybe he'll help us understand him by us helping him."

"Restraints are staying on though" Cyborg said, checking the screen on his arm to make sure the locks were still in place.

"Amen" Beast Boy concurred, following him out.

"Let's go" Robin said, standing at the doorway looking back at Raven still standing beside him as he switched the light off.

"Yeah" she said, letting her finger leave his runes as she left with Robin, hoping that this mystery would involve as little of her as possible. Starfire's compassionate outburst had calmed their curiosity and Raven was well aware that it was possible that at times she lacked _compassion._

"Are you okay?" Robin asked as she floated past him.

"Fine" she replied as neutrally as she could manage. She had closed her eyes as she passed the Boy Wonder so he wouldn't have seen the fear in her eyes. Because despite all her self-assurances that Trigon was gone, checking their tattooed patient's back, she couldn't deny that the centre most rune on his body was the Mark of Scath.

Lightning flashed through the sky as the storm raged on outside. Rain lashed against the windows of Titans Tower as the storm battered Jump City. Lightning again flashed, throwing shadows against the walls, thunder battered so fiercely it was scarce wonder that the elemental brothers weren't at their old antics of 'having fun'. In the medical bay, the teenager's eyes suddenly snapped open to clap of thunder. His hands curled into fists as he instinctively struggled against the shackles but it was hopeless. He waited for a moment more before his eyes flashed and a design on his shoulder lit up the same glowing yellow, his eyes narrowed in satisfaction. Lightning lit up the dark room again, showing a medical bay, a host of machines, and an empty bed, all the manacles hanging open. The youth hunted around before he found his clothes, pulling his sleeves back over his arms rather hurriedly before seeing to the rest of his clothes. He looked around one more time before making his way to the exit, it was time to make his escape. Jump City in early September was supposed to be beautiful but so far it had only brought him trouble. Perhaps he could find some work again in Gotham, he'd managed to make a living on its darkest streets before. He didn't want to return to the same place twice but given his circumstances it didn't look like he would have any other choice. The door slid open soundlessly and he made his way into the hall, looking both ways before picking one and beginning to move off. "Going somewhere?" Raven asked, descending from the ceiling, wrapped in her cloak.

The teenager braced himself. "I don't want to fight you" he told her, turning to take another step.

"There's a motion sensor in the wall you'll set off if you keep going that way" Raven told him, "that'll wake up Cyborg. Beyond that is the laser of Robin's which you're about to trip that'll bring him coming, and he's still awake brooding over you. You hurt any of them and their cries will wake Starfire up, she's one you wouldn't want to fight. Beast Boy probably wouldn't wake up if you brought the entire tower down but Cyborg would pick him up on his way here. There is no way to leave without starting a fight."

The teenager's fist only clenched tighter. "What do you want from me?"

"We want to know who you are" Raven told him neutrally. "It's not every day we find a new person with your kind of power that we've never seen before."

"You want to experiment on me."

"Not if we can avoid it, though Robin has been somewhat open to the possibility."

"And what about you?"

"I'm more interested in what's on you than what's in you" Raven replied, "where and how did you get the runes?"

"Not by choice" he replied. "But I make the most of them."

"Clearly" Raven remarked. "Do you have a name?"

The teen's face snapped back into such a furious expression Raven pulled energy to her hands bracing for an attack. The teen seemed to remember Raven's words though and calmed himself. "They called me Darkside" he told her.

"Who is they?" Raven asked.

Darkside's face clouded for a moment as he retreated back into his memory. "Bad people."

Raven eyed him for a moment, then felt a wave of fatigue wash over her body from standing watch for most of the night after the two fights. "Promise to still be here in the morning? We can help you."

"I don't need help" Darkside told her, "but I'll stay for the briefest of moments."

Raven nodded and disappeared through a hole of darkness she created in the floor. Robin watched from the shadows as Darkside took a worried step back from her power, before retreating back into his room, subdued by her words. There would be a reckoning with Darkside he believed. Something told him this was Terra all over again, but while Terra couldn't control her powers, Darkside almost seemed like he didn't want to.

Darkside sat at the table nervously for breakfast. He had taken a stool and moved it around the table so that he could see the door and anyone who came through it, keeping the table between him and the rest of the room. "So why do they call you Darkside?" Beast Boy asked, his foul manner disposed of with the long sleep. Darkside fixed him with a long stare.

"Pray you never find out, for both of our sakes" he told him.

"For both of our sakes…" Beast Boy muttered in a stupid fashion imitating Darkside. _Great, just what we needed _He thought, _another Raven. _

"Would you like to sample some of alien cuisine?" Starfire asked, displaying a dish that looked impossibly bad as it tasted.

"No thanks" Darkside told her, "I made my own."

Starfire retreated, a little disappointed but she moved on quickly. Darkside had his sleeves pulled up all the way again, covering his tattoos. With his shirt the tips of the ink usually poked out from under his collar but he had taken a hooded jersey zipped all the way up, obscuring everything. His hair feel lightly amongst his face. His eyes were still focussed on the bench under his hands linked by interlocked fingers, waiting for his impending interrogation. They were just missing one more Titan before it began, he knew it. The door slid open with a hiss and in stepped Robin's boots. "Titans, training" he declared. Everyone nodded and left through the door. "Are you coming?"

Darkside looked up, Robin was still standing in the doors, looking at him. "Don't you want to question me, find out what I am?"

"Actions speak louder than words" Robin replied. "And I'm pretty sure we all want to see what you can do."

"But I thought you wanted to experiment on me, or at least see me punished?"

"Everyone of us has made mistakes in our past. Starfire's released villains out of compassion, Cyborg's quit the team before, Raven's a demon, Beast Boy can get out of control with anger pushed far enough and I was the apprentice of a psychopath and I've hurt my friends more than once to accomplish my goals. What we were doesn't have to be who we are."

Darkside stood and joined Robin, making their way down to the beach of the island. Darkside and Robin watched at the other four Titans battled their way through an army of robotic tricks and traps, each designed to challenge the Titan they were aiming at. Cyborg struggled as robots piled on top of him, challenging his weight capacity. Beast Boy was diving through laser grids that forced him to change to fit through the next grid's gap. Starfire was avoiding anti-air blasters while replying with star bolts and Raven was disassembling a robot with bursts of energy, holding every piece in the air as it was rapidly deconstructed. Darkside shifted nervously as Raven's display. "It's nothing to be afraid of" Robin reassured him, "Raven's dark energy stems from her lineage, it's nothing unnatural."

"It's not what it is that causes fear," Darkside, "it's what it can do."

"Well we're more interested in your powers" Cyborg said, throwing off the weights. He gestured around to the course he had obviously created. "Care to give my baby a try? Be careful though, she bites."

"Which do you want to try?" Robin asked as he activated a control panel and Darkside replaced the Titans in the course.

"All of them" Darkside replied.

Robin looked at Cyborg who shrugged, then began to activate the courses. Darkside pulled off his jersey, but kept the shirt on and the sleeves down.

"I fear for our new compatriot" Starfire said.

"What?!" Beast Boy exclaimed at her. "He's not a Titan!"

"This… should be interesting" Raven muttered.

Darkside stood amongst the skeletal steel arms, watching each intently, looking to see which one would activate first. He was answered by Cyborg's weight course, a crane dropping a steel plate which came down with a crash and an explosion of dust. The Titans shielded their eyes from the dust as they looked to see no Darkside, but the plate near flat against the ground. "Darkside!" Starfire called out in worry.

The plate shifted minutely, then a corner lifted off the ground. "No way…" Beast Boy whispered.

The plate lifted higher to reveal Darkside on one knee, his head down and his hair had fallen over his face but that wasn't what had caught their amazement. Running down Darkside's arms was a line of runes, glowing a light brown. Darkside pushed and stood, lifting the plate above his head, his irises a similar colour to the runes. There was a burst of explosions as the top of the plate was peppered by the attack drones that had pursued Starfire. Darkside struggled for a moment, his lips curled in a growl through his gritted teeth before the brown runes brightened and he hurled the plate through the air, destroying the majority.

"That's impossible!" Cyborg cried, "that plate's over two tonnes, even I can't throw it!"

Darkside seemed not to have noticed however, running for the laser grids whilst being chased by the remainder of the drones. Darkside's eyes changed as he crossed his arms and pressed his fingers against the top of his shoulders, beginning to change the light a dark blue. "No chance" Beast Boy summed up as the first hole was meant for a rhino but the second was the size of a sparrow and in the top corner of the grid. Darkside threw himself through the lasers and shimmered briefly as he passed through unscathed. "Yo Robin, why does he get the easy pass?" Beast Boy complained.

"He isn't" Robin said, checking the screens, "the electric field is still up, he's just passing through it."

Darkside proved it by passing through the last field and spinning around, tossing glowing yellow discs off his forearms and destroying the last two drones. He turned around to be seized around the ribs by the robot that Raven had been practicing on, there was no breaking free of its grip once it had locked in. Darkside struggled but realising its futility, reached down into his pocket and pulled out one of the pieces of junk, it looked to be a pebble of some kind. He scratched it along the metal and his eyes turned black, accompanied by a large tattoo at the centre of his back. Darkside slammed his fist into the metal skin of the robot's arm and as the Titans watched, black energy began to spread from his fist, enveloping the robot. Raven reached out with her senses, this was not like her energy, she put a part of herself into every spell she cast, she had control. This energy she felt was like rage, burning and white-hot, and whatever was fuelling it, was not Darkside. The robot groaned for a moment before exploding in a shower of metal pieces, Darkside lightly landed as was revealed as the dust cleared. He brushed the dust off his shoulder and looked up at the slack-jawed spectators staring. "That's what I can do" he told them.

"How did you do that?" Robin asked.

"My runes" he said, gesturing. "They all represent different powers, abilities infused into my body. Some I can trigger just by thinking about them, others I have touch, some are triggered by certain sounds, hence this," he said, holding up the pebble before returning it to his pocket with all his other triggers. "Others are sometimes triggered by emotions, pain, almost anything. I don't know what a lot of them still do, I only find out when they activate for the first time. One time I was working at a diner in Steel City, this guy comes in wearing some sort of cologne and I ended up blasting a hole in the wall with my eyes."

"Dude" Beast Boy said.

"You are truly most talented" Starfire said, "to control such gifts."

"Yeah" Darkside said, looking away. "Gifts."

"How much power are you packing in there?" Cyborg asked jokingly, looking at Darkside's slim body.

"And how has it not torn you apart?" Raven finished, darkening the conversation somewhat, even though there was a more caring touch to her voice than usual.

"I don't know" Darkside told them. "I just have powers and I try not to use them. I move around a lot, never really staying in one place for long, I just… leave."

"You don't have a home?" Starfire asked.

Darkside shook his head. "That was taken from me a long time before I got the runes."

_He really is like Terra _Robin thought. He could see by the clouds in Beast Boy's eyes that he was thinking the same thing.

A blip on his communicator interrupted whatever his next thought was going to be. Robin flipped it open and narrowed his eyes. "Plasmus" he cursed.

"Another one of Slade's goons" Cyborg said.

"Let's get going" Robin ordered as the group ran back to the tower. All except one. Darkside watched them go, knowing this wasn't a place he was invited to go. He waited for a moment, then followed their trail back up to the tower. They would be gone for over an hour easily, enough time for him to escape this place, this city. It was time for him to go once more.


	3. Allegiance

**AUTHOR'S NOTES- YOU SHOULDN'T NEED TO ME TO TELL YOU BUT I DO NOT OWN TEEN TITANS AND I DON'T MAKE MONEY OFF THIS STORY. SORRY FOR THE SMALL CHAPTER, NEXT ONE WILL BE BETTER, I PROMISE**

Darkside packed what little possessions he had that had been stripped of him when he had been taken and quickly left. Looking around, he tried to make his way out but the winding corridors of Titans Tower soon had him lost. Opening a door, he sighed in annoyance, he had found his way to the main lounge of the tower looking over the bay. He looked around and almost left but a smoke stack rising out of the city caught his eye. He looked at it cautiously before turning on the TV. A news channel came onto the enormous screen and the first two words were enough to catch Darkside's attention. _Teen Titans… _He looked back to the screen. "…locked in a fierce confrontation for the past few minutes with the infamous super criminal Plasmus, who appears to have increased in both size and strength since their last known confrontation. The battle can be heard from more than three blocks away, explosions and the screams are quite audible…" The wall beyond the reporter exploded with a grunt as Cyborg was zoomed in on, laying amongst the pile of bricks. He groaned and pushed them off himself before rejoining the fight. "As you can see, the fight is fierce, and the Titans, for now at least, are not winning."

Plasmus roared and blasted a torrent of magenta ooze from his right arm. Robin dodged and flung three exploding discs, all finding their mark in Plasmus' chest, the holes simply filling up again though. Plasmus blocked the impact of Starfire's beams as she flew past overhead, keeping him occupied. Plasmus turned to watch her as Beast Boy in the form of a massive T-Rex spun and took off Plasmus' head with a swipe of his tail. The top half of Plasmus splattered against the wall of a building and dribbled down as Beast Boy reverted to his human form to watch. "Got him!" The bottom half of Plasmus suddenly rippled as green bubbles raised to the surface, then Beast Boy realised they weren't bubbles; they were Plasmus' eyes. "Uh oh." Beast Boy went flying back as Raven attacked with a wave of energy that simply cut through Plasmus, his body merging back together as soon as it had passed. Cyborg ran into the view, rolling to avoid a punch and using his sonic cannon to cut through Plasmus' leg, dropping the monster to one knee. Starfire halted in midair and joined her hands together to continue the Titan's offence but was blasted back with a surprised squeal as the other half of Plasmus screamed. Starfire was pinned against a wall, the ooze refusing to release its grip glueing her stuck.

"Now there's two of them?" Cyborg said, looking around, "no fair, we should get another five Titans!"

"It'll have to be just us" Robin grunted, "Cyborg! Cryo-cannon!" Cyborg levelled his arm as it transformed and took aim at the first Plasmus. It screamed and blasted itself at him, Cyborg firing at the same time. When the light had faded, Cyborg felt cold. He looked down to see the first Plasmus had indeed been frozen, but it had managed to coat him first. Cyborg had trapped himself.

"Guess it's just us" Beast Boy said, shifting into a mammoth and charging with a trumpeting noise. Raven barely had time to blink as a green hairy mammoth came flying at her accompanied by a river of Plasmus muck.

"Great" she muttered, drenched and stuck to Beast Boy as hanging wall ornaments.

Robin's teeth gritted even tighter as he surveyed his trapped friends, Plasmus stood between them, cutting him off. He extended his staff and charged with a growing roar. Plasmus responded by extending his arm towards the ground and shooting himself down a storm water drain, into the sewer. "Huh?" Robin said, momentarily confused. The next sound was his yell as the road cracked and Plasmus erupted out of it, coating the Boy Wonder. Plasmus surveyed the five struggling teens, a scream of satisfaction and victory sounding from his mouth. He regained his size again and wandered over to Cyborg. "Get away from him!" Robin yelled, but Plasmus took no notice. He raised a magenta arm and it reformed into the shape of an enormous hammer, Cyborg's mouth fell open in dismay.

"Leave them alone!" Came the shout of a different voice.

The Titans looked up to see Darkside flying through the air towards Plasmus. "Darkside, no!" Robin yelled but it was too late to stop him. A grey rune lit up on Darkside's palm as Plasmus turned and the teen thrust it into his chest. The palm made contact with Plasmus and with a burst of light, Plasmus was turned to solid stone. Darkside stood still for a moment, catching his breath in the shadow of the enormous petrified statue. The ooze that was pinning the Titans suddenly fell away from them, it had become as thin as water. Beast Boy fell the ground with a yell and a heavy thud.

"Is he… dead?" The shape shifter asked, rubbing his chin.

"I don't know" Darkside admitted, looking up. "I just did what I thought I had to."

"He's alive" Cyclops told the group, holding out an arm to read the results of his scanners. "Solid stone, but alive. He's gonna imprisoned in that body for a long time, at least until someone figures out a way to change him back."

"We owe you our thanks" Robin said, looking conflicted. "But this isn't what we would've wanted, Plasmus is a victim of himself too."

Darkside nodded, seemingly not wanting any more elaboration. "So dude" Beast Boy started. "You just happened to have this power that could've won from the first second and now you arrive. Where were you before?!"

Darkside gestured to himself, his dark clothes were soaking wet.

"You swam!?"

"Well it's not like you guys have a public access bridge" Darkside replied.

"We uh" Cyborg started, a hand behind his head. "We have a tunnel, for the T-Car. It's hidden underneath the tower."

"Oh" Darkside said. "Good to know."

"So what was Plasmus' intent before Darkside's intervention?" Starfire asked, lowering to the ground.

"This" Robin said, picking a green gem up off the ground, the remains of Plasmus' muck dripping off it. The gem was just larger than the size of Robin's fist.

"Looks priceless" Beast Boy said, examining it up close.

"But what would Plasmus need with something sparkly?" Raven spoke, slightly removed from the rest of the group.

"A retrieval mission?" Cyborg asked.

"Retrieval for who?" Robin growled. No one dare spoke the name that was hanging on all their minds.

"I fear the answer will not be revealed here" Starfire dared.

"She's right" Robin agreed, "let's go home." He looked over to Darkside. "I promise you won't have to swim this time."

Back at the tower, the team rapidly split up. Raven retreated to her room for meditations, Beast Boy and Cyborg were battling on their latest video game with Starfire offering one of her various questionable dishes of Tamaranean cuisine and slightly annoyed when Cyborg declared that the loser would eat it. Robin however, was more interested in drilling Darkside for more answers. "How did you get the runes? How did you learn to use them? What's your story?"

"What's yours?" Darkside asked in reply.

Robin looked surprised, unused to being talked back to. "You seem to forget that with one phone call we can get you a nice comfy cell in prison."

Darkside shrugged. "Then do it, see how much I care."

"Why don't you care what happens to you?" Robin asked, his voice sounding bitter. "The way you threw yourself at Plasmus today, he could spit acid, he could hit you hard enough to knock you through three buildings or simply crushed you against the pavement but you didn't care, you just went straight at him, why?"

Darkside fixed him with a cold stare that matched Robin's own intensity. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"We don't have to be enemies" Robin said, extending a gloved hand in gesture. "But friends generally know who each other are."

Darkside lifted up an arm and pulled the sleeve back, revealing a rune glowing light blue on the underside of his forearm. "I'm still learning about who I am, how can you know?"

"We'll learn together" Robin promised.

Darkside looked at the rune on his arm, closing his fist before opening it. The rune brightened a fraction before fading back into his skin. "I'd like that" he finally said.

"Yo newbie!" Cyborg yelled. "You good at video games?"

"Haven't had a lot of practice" Darkside told him.

"Can't be worse than Beast Boy, get over here!"

Darkside looked back to Robin who nodded with a small smile. "Go."

Darkside left and uncertainly joined Cyborg who began to coach him through the basics of the spaceship racing game, Robin noted the half robot refrained from telling him the best tips while Beast Boy turned a shade even greener as he went at Starfire's cooking with a spoon to her unbelievable delight.

Robin watched as the door slid open and Raven walked over to stand beside him. "What did you find?" He asked. "Is he dangerous?"

"Everyone in this room is dangerous" Raven replied coolly. "But he harbours no evil intent as far as I can tell. Although…"

"Although what?" Robin asked, turning to look at her.

"I think he's a danger to himself" Raven said, "all his energy is… conflicted, I can't sense his motivations because he doesn't know them himself. He doesn't know how to be calm."

"Sounds like you could teach him a thing or two" Robin smirked at his own joke.

Raven eyed him humourlessly. "He's not coming in my room."

"He might be staying in his own for a little while longer than we initially thought" Robin said. He reached into his built and pulled out a spare communicator with a capital 'T' emblazoned on it.

"You're thinking of making him a Titan?" Raven asked disbelievingly. "One of us? Surely you can't trust him just because of what happened with Plasmus."

"I don't trust him because of what happened with Plasmus" Robin said in a dangerously low voice. "I don't trust him at all. But he's dangerous and we need to keep an eye on him and make sure his secrets can't harm us or anyone else." He looked down at the communicator in his hand. "This might be the way to do it."

"All I can say is if you invite him into a home and then he realises it's really a prison" Raven started, striding away concealed in her cloak. "He won't take too kindly to that."


	4. A Routine Day

Almost a week passed without incident since the encounter with Plasmus, save one alert where the Titans thought they were under attack inside the tower until it was discovered that Starfire's scream and hurled exploding starbolt was in response to sighting a cockroach in the kitchen, which she assured them resembled a carnivorous creature in some forgotten system deep in space. Robin divided his time between his obsessive study over Slade and watching Darkside, with almost no time for sleeping and eating in between. Raven was still trying to pierce Darkside's aura under his instruction but she could only protrude so far before she knew he would detect her if she went any further, resulting in frustratingly vague details for Robin. Darkside seemed to be slowly losing his moody persona thanks to spending more time with Cyborg and Beast Boy. The former he helped with the T-Car's security systems after appalling the mechanic by successfully breaking in and hot-wiring the vehicle in less than a minute. Darkside also poorly masked his amusement at Beast Boy's jokes which made him an instant best friend of the shape shifter and thanks to his history at the Steel City Diner was even able to help Starfire to use some human techniques to improve her cooking. As a trick together, they slipped some of her Tamaranean pie into dinner and didn't hear a single complaint, Darkside winked at Starfire with a smile as he ate his, making the alien princess blush with delight and pride as Beast Boy inquired if there was seconds. Robin amped up the intensity of the training sessions, pushing them all to their limits, at the end of their days the Titans were nearly dropping from exhaustion, he wanted to test Darkside, even though he had more than earned their respect in the courses. One thing became evident to the Titans over the course of those days; Darkside did not view his runes as gifts. He was constantly pulling the sleeves of his shirt lower, and never went without it. The Titans had spent the day at the beach as part of Robin's hidden agenda to study the runes further but to his disappointment Darkside did not bring a bathing suit, he simply skipped stones along the flat surface of the sea until they agreed to go back home. Beast Boy had accidentally activated the rune that Darkside had used to throw a ring of energy on training course previously with a cheeky prod. After closing his palms on the energy and detonating it, Darkside had unleashed a verbal tirade on Beast Boy, shouting him down until he was a small green mouse of meekness. Darkside had apologised a few hours later but the entire team had still been stunned by the outburst. Raven had been meaning to lend him a book she had on runes that she thought might be able to help him but had been unable to find it among the towering stacks she already kept, meaning she couldn't do anything the soothe the barely controlled rage under the surface. He was like Robin in some ways, although he was able to portray happiness for the sake of his friends much better. Starfire had become infatuated with her new friend, Raven half suspected Darkside was using a rune just to survive the hugs she would give him. Yes, he was definitely better at appearing happy than Robin was but he couldn't lie to Raven when the empath opened herself through her meditations.

Raven woke up early one morning, rubbing her head where it had lain awkwardly on the book she had fallen asleep reading in bed last night. The sun hadn't risen, it was barely lighting the dawn as she decided to go, throwing her cloak around her body against the chill of the impending winter. She entered the lounge of the tower, making her way to the kitchen where she brewed a cup of her herbal tea, a small smilie decorating her face under the hood as the aroma wafted up to her amongst the steam. She leant against the counter as she raised the cup to her lips and took a sip. The first taste almost scalded her tongue to the point of numbness but Raven kept her face emotionless, forcing another sip. The door opened and Darkside was next to wander in. That was surprising, she had expected Robin to be the next in, though his obsessions could keep him away from everything for days. Darkside mirrored her surprise, though hers was hidden in the shadow of her cowl. "Would've thought you would be meditating or something" he told her casually.

"Aren't I allowed a cup of tea once in a while?" She asked rhetorically.

"Not sure" Darkside replied without warmth, "has Robin given you the time off between wanting you to break in here?" He tapped his temple. "You're good but I've felt better. Relax" he told her nervous expression, "I'm not angry, I'd have done the same." He reached to pour his own cup of tea, traversing the distance between them.

Raven was suddenly struck by a feeling of boldness. "I did feel something" she told him, snatching his wrist. Before Darkside could resist, she twisted it, forcing him off balance and unable to strike her back. She put the cup down and yanked down his sleeve, her breath leaving her in shock and sadness that she was right. In a series of lines down Darkside's left wrist were scars, centred on the veins that ran through it. There was no question they had been self-inflicted. "Why?" She hissed.

Darkside yanked his arm out of her grip, pulling back the sleeve to cover his wrist. "I can't control the runes I don't know about" he told her. "Learning about what I can do can have consequences, serious consequences. I hurt people, people I cared about. I went to a dark place and I couldn't see a light at the end of this tunnel so I tried to empty my veins and runes just sealed them back up."

Raven was quiet for what seemed to be an eternity to her, she knew what it was like to not be completely in control of her powers and afraid of what her powers would bring but to be actually be afraid of what she could do was something she had never experienced. If she ever went too far, hatred simply took over her in the form of Trigon's red eyes and she couldn't feel a thing when he was in control. "I'm sorry" she finally said. "I know what it's like to be afraid because of what I am, what having our powers can do."

"But you know how to use them" Darkside insisted.

"My powers were given to me by my father… Trigon" she told him, hesitating a little at her father's name. "He wanted to have a connection between us so that-". She never got to finish her sentence as suddenly Darkside moved in a blur towards her. Raven felt her body being slammed backwards, her traditional clay cup of herbal tea shattering against the ground. Raven hit the wall and gasped for air, Darkside's fingers were around her throat.

"Trigon is your father!?" Darkside yelled.

"He's no father to me" Raven struggled. She tried to use her powers but the lack of oxygen made her vision blurred and she slipped out of the focus she required. "What's he to you anyway?"

"He did this to me!" Darkside screamed, the runes glowing red up his arm that extended to Raven's neck. She kicked uselessly but Darkside held her high so that she couldn't touch the ground.

"Darkside, stop!" Robin's yell cut through the atmosphere as he and the other titans charged into the room.

"You don't understand!" Darkside yelled back. "She's a servant of evil!"

"We do understand" Robin replied. "Without her, Trigon would've taken over everything, and not just the world, she's a Titan, always has been." Raven felt the grip loosen, then Darkside lowered her gently to the floor. "It's time for answers" Robin declared. "No more half-truths this time."

"How did you get your powers?" Cyborg asked, deactivating his sonic cannon.

Darkside looked back at Raven, her eyes were wide with fear and shock under the hood, her shoulders heaving to get her breath back.

"A year ago" Darkside started, "the world ended. There was… a cataclysm, the sky turned red, buildings were blackened and destroyed and people… were turned to stone." His eyes closed as he repressed the memory. Raven realised he must have seen his friends and felt a pang of sympathy, through the visions Slade had forced on her she knew what it was like to see that fate of your friends. She did not acknowledge the pang of guilt though. "I was unaffected, why I don't know, I was just alive and alone in this Hell. It was like that for only a short time but when it ended, I was taken to another Hell, even worse. The Devil took me captive, calling himself Trigon."

"Trigon still lives?" Starfire asked.

Raven answered the question for her. "Of course he still lives. As long as there is good, evil will truly never die, at least not forever."

"Then Trigon inflicted _these _on me" Darkside continued, gesturing to his runes as he hissed. "He said if he could not be in Earth, then his power would. The next memory I have was waking up in Gotham, the runes activating wildly. What happened after… let's just say that there's a reason I left." The light faded out on the runes that had brightened with his anger and he walked out, the fire had burned out in his stride just like the runes.

"Are you okay?" Robin asked as the team gathered around Raven.

"Fine" Raven replied, holding a hand to her head as she used her powers to piece back the shattered cup together. Beast Boy gave her a small reassuring smile as he grabbed a rag and wiped up the spilt tea.

"Hell of a start to the day" Cyborg muttered.

"Let us hope it does not grow any worse" Starfire said, holding her hands together.

Starfire's prayer lasted the day, but not long enough. Every Titan suddenly bolted upright in their beds as the alarm went off that night. One look at their screens told the Titans that Cyborg had issued the alert, and to meet him urgently. "What's wrong?" Robin asked.

"Security breach" Cyborg told him, fingers furiously tapping at a keyboard controlling the systems. "Someone's in the building, but I can't pinpoint where, it's like they tripped the door alarm just for a calling card."

"He's cocky" Robin growled, "We'll have the advantage."

"Uh guys" Beast Boy suddenly said, looking around. "Where's Raven?"

Robin felt his stomach lurch realising Beast Boy was right. Everyone had responded to Cyborg's signal, even Darkside. But Raven was not around. "Her room's four levels above here, she's tough, maybe she'll keep him occupied. Titans go!" The group charged up the stairs but were only met with shock. Raven's door was lying in her room in two pieces, it had been kicked in. "How did you not pick this up?" Robin yelled, turning on Cyborg.

Cyborg quickly checked his screen, "security says there's nothing abnormal here, whoever it is has infiltrated my systems!" His tone could have been mistaken for anger at the intruder for prickling his ego but they all knew better. While Robin's anger stemmed from Raven being a member of his team, Raven was like a little sister to Cyborg, and no one touched Cyborg's little sister without having a sonic blast to answer to. Beast Boy shifted into a bloodhound and quickly sniffed the ground but shook his head at Robin, there was no scent, Raven's or otherwise.

Robin's scowl grew even tighter, "split up, find them!"

The team ran to obey his order, the tower was filled with frantic footsteps and shouts of Raven's name, but she didn't reply. Robin found her locator cracked into pieces in one of the halls, the tracking signal long dead. He clenched a shaking fist and charged off, whoever was responsible for this would pay dearly, he vowed. Darkside took the lowest floor, both to work his way upwards and to escape the team, he could feel their apprehension at undertaking this personal mission with an outsider helping. "Raven?" He called out to the towering shelves of the archive, holding up a glowing rune on his palm. There was no reply and he was leaving when suddenly the light reflected off something dark on the floor. It was blood. Darkside looked up sharply, a sweep of his surroundings revealed nothing until he spotted an identical speck of blood deeper on in. Darkside gritted his teeth as he looked back at the door. He had nothing to call with for backup, he faced a choice whether to go after Raven and potentially something that could've taken down one of the strongest Titans or get help first. Darkside didn't know why but he was after the next speck before the thought was finished running through his head. He moved after the next, turning a corner, and then another, the specks turned into puddles were less spread, Raven had been slowing down as the blood had dripped out of her. Darkside turned the next corner and his mouth fell open in fear and shock. Raven was suspended against the wall, her side slashed open. Blood ran down from her body to pool on the floor. Her arms were sharply tied to the wall, giving her the appearance of being crucified. But what truly made Darkside take a shallow breath in fear were the letters scrawled above Raven's head in her own blood, _I HAVE RETURNED _and the half-black, half-orange mask strapped to Raven's face.


	5. A New Titan

**A/N: BIG THANKS TO THE FEW WHO REVIEWED/PM'D SO FAR, NICE TO KNOW I'M NOT TOTALLY AWFUL AT THIS. ALWAYS APPRECIATE POINTERS WHERE I CAN GET THEM. **

Darkside's mouth hung open in shock, taking in the grisly sight before he realised he had to act before it was too late, _if it already isn't too late…_

He ran to her, throwing the yellow energy rings from his arms that blew the restraints free. Raven tumbled lifelessly from her exposition but Darkside caught her lightly. He pulled the mask off her face and threw it away where it landed with a clatter. Raven's face was pale white, she had lost too much blood already. Darkside examined the wound, it had been a single cut, deep, precise and lethal. His fingers were coated red just from brushing the edge of the wound. "Somebody help!" He cried as loud as he could, before realising that even if Cyborg had sensors down here to detect the noise, he was probably ignoring his sensors due to the fact they had been compromised. Darkside tried to lift her but she groaned in pain, forcing him to lower her back quickly. She was still alive, that was encouraging. She was too far gone to be moved however, the trip would certainly be fatal. Darkside remembered the way the Titans had charged in when he had attacked Raven, the concern and anger on their faces fearing she had been hurt. The way they both respected her privacy and constantly made sure she was alright, that was true friendship. That was something worth living for. _Something I don't have _Darkside thought, and his decision was made. His hand dropped to his pocket and pulled out something metallic. Darkside's eyes narrowed as the light shimmered down the razor blade before he put it to his wrist. He gritted his teeth and snapped his eyes shut as he yanked, feeling the blade cut deep with a wince that he couldn't hold in and came out more of a hiss. Darkside held his wrist up to examine the wound as blood rushed out and the red rune lit up, forcing the blood to slow and begin returning back into his arm. _Not me_ Darkside told the power, _her. _The lines of red light ran down his fingers where he gently held Raven and as he watched, her blood began to return into the wound which was also slowly shrinking. Blood dripped from Darkside making him careful to avoid Raven's pool as she healed, last thing he needed was to give her an incompatible blood transfusion. Darkside could feel his arm getting heavier, he pulled his arm that was supporting Raven to brace against the ground, he was the one becoming in need of support. Colour began to flood back into Raven's cheeks as the puddles disappeared, the wound wasn't even half the size of the slash in her robe anymore. Darkside watched the space created by the receding pool into Raven was swiftly swallowed up by the pool from himself. His eyelids felt heavy. He watched as her side closed up like an invisible zip on her skin before his arm gave out and he collapsed beside her with a gasp, feeling the darkness encroach in on him. His heartbeat was like a drum in his ears, he could hear it slowing with every thump. Rune's chest felt heavy just from breathing. He had to hold on until someone came to get them. _Just a few moments more _he thought, _just a few… _He never finished the thought, his head rolling to one side and the last thing Rune saw was Raven's peaceful sleeping face as he was finally swept away into the darkness.

Robin had been furious upon finding the scene down in the archives below. He had punched a wall in and gritted his teeth together so hard Beast Boy swore he could hear them cracking. Darkside had been in the medical centre for nearly two days and still hadn't woken up. They had given him a transfusion and his heart rate was holding steady but other than that there was little more to differ him from a potato, his brain activity was minimal at best. What haunted Robin though, was what he saw only as the reemergence of Slade. After a thorough search of the tower and a full reboot of the security systems, they all agreed there was no one, Slade or otherwise, in the tower who wasn't a Titan. Robin had checked the evidence file they had on Slade, he had kept it in his room always until spurred on by Starfire to store it away. Opening it, he found the mask was missing, having being taken to fasten onto Raven. "It's Slade" he insisted.

"We don't know that for sure" Cyborg argued. "It could've been just a trick to throw us off the real criminal?"

"This was Slade's MO, you heard Raven describe the terror before he got her."

"You also heard her say she didn't see anyone or remember anything after she was taken out in her room."

"Why are you so desperate to prove this wasn't Slade?"

"Why are you so desperate to prove it is?"

Raven scrunched her eyes shut tighter as Robin's yell of frustration echoed around the tower. The night had shaken her up and her meditation wasn't helping, sleeping was just too tiring to try and Starfire's squeak when Raven hadn't heard her approach had made the empath whirl around and unleash a bolt of black lightning on reflex, temporarily destroying the kitchen. Raven stared at her reflection hunched over in the bathroom mirror. Her lip curled in annoyance at a strand of violet hair that had grown a millimetre out of place and she singed it back to perfection with a finger of sparking dark energy. This was all Darkside's fault, if he hadn't had the need to just throw himself at death's door begging himself to be taken in her place she'd never have felt like this. She examined the thin scar on her side, briefly remembering the pain of the blade flashing out of the darkness, biting deep between the gap in her ribs. When she had been woken up, the silence at her demand to know who was there, the moving shadow of a figure hiding just beyond her sight, the tiny chinking as a book fell from a stack, a candle rolling off her desk and that laugh of all-knowing satisfaction before she whirled around just in time to see the moonlight glint off the swinging blade before it cut into her flesh and the rest was a haze of red. Then she had woken up in the medical bay, told she needed to rest but she knew that she was fine, and that she shouldn't have been. Beast Boy's silence as she demanded answers had been nothing compared to hers when he had moved aside to reveal Darkside in the bed beside the window, pale as a sheet with a large bag of blood feeding into his wrist. It had told her all she needed to know, and she hated him for making her feel this way, for making her feel guilt. "He'll be okay" Beast Boy reassured her. Raven felt the emotions conflict within her. She wanted to storm out. She wanted to wait by his side until Darkside woke up. She wanted him to be here with her but she also wanted him to go so she'd never have to think about him again. _Urgh, emotions suck _she thought. She'd tried to read but levitating the book to her with her unbalanced emotions caused her powers to flare and incinerate the book into a pile of ashes on the floor. _Great, another thing he owes me for_ she silently seethed as she stormed over to a stack to retrieve a book by hand, pulling her cowl even lower over her face.

"Raven?" Her communicator asked her in Starfire's voice. "Raven are you there?"

"Where else would I be?" Raven asked in reply.

"Robin wishes me to inform you that our new friend's life signs are rapidly increasing and that he will be awake soon."

"I'm on my way" Raven replied after a moment, pulling her hood even lower again.

Darkside woke to feel warmth on his face, whatever was holding him was comfortable, and he was not in pain. _I always figured I was going to the other place _he thought, opening his eyes. Standing around him were the five Titans, Robin closest on one side, Raven on the other. "You're awake" Robin said.

Darkside nodded, feeling uncomfortable with all the attention focussed in on him.

"You saved Raven" Robin continued, "if it had been anyone else who had found her she would've died. You have all our thanks."

"And you know, especially mine" Raven commented awkwardly, though her expression was unreadable under her cowl.

Darkside shook his head. "It was nothing. You guys all gave me a chance, I just wanted to do the same."

The Titans all looked at each other, silently asking who should take the lead. "We've been talking…" started Cyborg.

"A lot" added Beast Boy.

"And you have shown tremendous heroism in the face of evil" Starfire continued.

"And anyway, we'd like to give you a lot more than just a chance" Robin finished, a hand outstretched. In in his palm was a Titan's communicator.

"You want me to join you guys?" Darkside asked in disbelief.

"You've been a friend to the Titans" Cyborg told him.

"And we'd like to be friends with you" Beast Boy told him.

"Please accept, please accept" Starfire pleaded with her eyes shut in delight.

"I already painted your name on the bedroom door" Cyborg told him.

Darkside found himself smiling. "Then I suppose I don't have a choice then, do I?" He took the communicator from Robin's hand, it was a perfect fit inside his tattooed palm.

"Congratulations" Raven told him drily, breaking her silence. Despite her tone, Darkside swore for a moment he could see the faintest traces of a smile playing around her lips.

"Am I allowed to get out of here?" Darkside asked, gesturing to his bed.

"Should be alright" Cyborg told him, "as long as you take it easy until your arteries are back at maximum, no training for a couple days."

"We'll give you a moment to change" Robin told him, leading the Teen Titans filing out.

"Raven, wait" Darkside started, reaching out and grabbing her hand. If there ever was a contact with sparks between two people, Darkside would've sworn this was it. Raven didn't tell him but there actually _had _been sparks between them, but that was because her emotions were momentarily torn between her heart swelling and an anger telling her to slap him into another dimension for that act.

"Yeah, I'm not terribly good at this…" Raven started. "But thanks. I'll buy you a pizza sometime, that always works with Beast Boy."

"I'm not Beast Boy" Darkside told her.

"No you are not" she agreed, her tone of voice wasn't negative. On the contrary, there was something quite curious about it. There was a moment of silence between them, then Darkside felt Raven's fingers wrap around the hand he was holding hers with, then it seemed like for friends they had been holding on a bit too long. "I better leave you alone" she said, hurriedly walking out. Darkside watched her go, then grabbed his clothes, noticing they were slightly different. The holes were gone, the material was lighter and the clothes were leaner, no longer baggy as they wrapped around his muscles. The communicator fit perfectly into a new space on his belt.

"How do you like the uniform?" Robin asked.

"Super lightweight, triple weave titanium polymers, this stuff is almost up to scratch with Robin's cape!" Cyborg said, obviously very proud of his construct.

"I do hope I got your measurements right with the sewing" Starfire fretted.

Darkside calmed her with an easy smile. "You got them perfect" he told her, making her smile even more.

"There's one more thing" Robin told him. "Being a Titan means a new life, a new identity. Since Darkside isn't your real name or your choice, we were wondering if you wanted to choose a new one?"

"I can choose a new name?" Darkside asked.

"Of course dude! Do you think my name is actually Beast Boy?" The green teen asked sarcastically.

"Cyborg would've been the most coincidental name ever if I had been born with it" Cyborg added.

"So we no longer care you were" Robin told him.

"Only the person you want to be" Starfire finished.

Darkside looked at Raven and sensing his invitation, she carefully penetrated his mind. He asked her opinion and she agreed. The newest Teen Titan looked down at his hands. "Rune" he finally said, "my name is Rune."


	6. Something Illogical

Rune was an instant fit at his new home, learning and adjusting to his friends' routines, Raven's morning meditations, Cyborg and BB's video game wars, Robin ignoring lunch to study up on a new lead until Starfire would bring him food and refuse to leave until he ate it. The pair had grown considerably closer since Tokyo but the entire team could sense Starfire wished for a greater commitment than Robin could give. Sure, they held hands, had their cute whispered conversations of sweet nothings when they thought no one was watching but as far as any official confirmation as to whether they were officially a dating couple or not; there was nothing. Robin gave too much of himself to his work it seemed, to be truly able to give himself to Starfire. Still, to the Tamaranean's credit, she did not push Robin. She simply accepted his routines and tendencies and continued with her life, waiting for that day when Robin would be able to set down the cracked Slade mask and take her in his arms instead. Rune made up his mind to keep his head out of that drama, just because they had invited him to stay didn't mean that he was welcome just anywhere. Robin had taken Rune back to his room the moment he could to get answers. Rune found it was easier to just retell the events simply, as if he had been watching from over his his own shoulder, though it was still difficult to describe the moment he had seen Raven, in truth it had stopped him from sleeping on a few nights afterward. Robin's hand clenched tighter and tighter around one of his bird-a-rangs until the metal buckled under the strain of his grip. "It's Slade" he kept muttering, "there's no other possibility."

"What does he want?" Rune asked.

"Power. Control. A legacy" Robin told him. "It looks like his current plan to achieve that is through the use of these." He held up the large gem they had retrieved from Plasmus.

"'These'?" Rune repeated. "There's more than one?"

Robin nodded. "There's three, they're part of a set called the Ascent Trio."

"Weird name."

"According to legend these were the crown jewels for the three crowns of angels" Robin snorted. "But brought together, they allowed an individual to ascend to Heaven and receive powers, serious powers."

"Slade doesn't seem like the type to go chasing after witch stories" Rune said skeptically.

Robin nodded in agreement. "Which makes Slade's quest to get them all the more interesting, I highly doubt the story but if Slade's chasing these it makes me think he's found something out that would validate the legend of power."

"So if the intruder really was Slade, why didn't he take this gem?" Rune quizzed.

"Because I moved it" Robin replied. "And the main safe where it would've been normally was broken into. I haven't told the team."

Rune felt a worm of unease move through him at the mention of secrets. He had his own of course but to be included in actively deceiving his new friends wasn't something he wanted to do a week after meeting them. "So we have one, where are the other two?"

"One is part of a moving precious jewel collection" Robin told him, "scheduled to come to Jump City soon, undoubtedly Slade plans to hit it before it leaves. The other is… missing."

"Missing?"

Robin nodded with a sense of glumness, as if he blamed himself for not knowing Slade's plan sooner. "I made some inquiries, stolen as of a month ago. Not a whisper about it since."

"So which will Slade go after first? Ours or the collection's?"

"Slade's not stupid, he'll know we're at our most paranoid right now, he wouldn't try again for the Tower for a long while."

"So he's going to steal from the collection…" Rune drifted off, studying the expression beyond Robin's mask, "…and you want to steal it first."

"If we could guarantee having both gems in our possession, Slade would have to come to us" Robin explained, "we'd have the advantage."

"Didn't you try this out before?" Rune asked, unconvinced. "I've been hearing talk amongst the team since Slade became a topic, something about a 'Red X'?"

"That was a mistake" Robin growled, "not one I want to repeat but we need to stop Slade getting his hands on this gem at all costs."

"So why are you telling me this?" Rune asked.

"Because I've been watching you work on the T-Car's security systems" Robin said. "And you have a past history as a criminal, I'm going to need your experience and a partner if I want to succeed at this. This would be a black op, no one else can know but us. Are you in?"

Rune waited for a long moment, Robin was leaning against his desk kneading the knuckles of both his hands into the surface. Rune remembered Raven suspended with blood running down, Slade's mask hiding her face save for one violet iris, near lifeless. "I'm in."

"Then take this" Robin said, holding out a book.

"What is it?" Rune asked, flipping it open.

"I took it from Raven's room when you came to us" Robin told him, "it's all about runes, what they can do, I figured you could use some study material, maybe learn some new tricks."

Rune was already absorbed in the pages. "Some of these I haven't woken yet" he said, amazed.

Robin nodded in thanks and respect. "You have homework. Get to work, when it's time, I'll get you."

Rune left to find Raven outside waiting for him. "So was your first interrogation at the hands of the Boy Wonder?" She asked him.

"Something you're familiar with?" He asked.

She nodded, "just a few times, trying to find a weakness in preparation for the battle with Trigon." She softened her words at the end of the sentence to try and keep Rune calm. "And you were interviewed about Slade, I can't imagine that would've been fun."

Rune flashed back to Robin's offer. "It definitely wasn't what I was expecting" he conceded.

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "something you should tell me?"

Rune remembered the weight in his hand. "Yeah, he stole your book" he told her, turning away and hoping the concealment worked. A black spark flicked around Raven's fingernails in annoyance at Robin as Rune walked away. Partially because he had omitted part of the truth, she knew a feint when she saw one and wasn't buying that he had told her the whole truth for a second. Predominantly though, she was annoyed that he had managed to brush off his near full sacrifice so easily, like it meant nothing. To Raven, it meant everything. She had always had a difficult time believing she deserved friends, deserved kindness and her friends had always surprised and touched her with how much that they were prepared to give for her. But they were her friends, she had known them for years, they had history together but even though she knew they would make the same sacrifice for an innocent, she wasn't innocent and Rune had known it. He had known she was the daughter of Trigon who had made him suffer through his powers and he had been prepared to die for her anyway. _Why!? _Raven didn't enjoy this feeling of debt she owed Rune, it went deeper than just taking a hit and she couldn't figure out what the feeling he made her feel was called. There was guilt, fear, sadness but they were mixed in a tidal wave of sympathy, happiness and hope. He made her feel so much just by ending a conversation nonchalantly with her, what would she feel when they made eye contact? The spark from her fingernail shot out of her fingernail as a bolt, scorching a line up the wall beside Robin's door. Raven gasped, she needed to meditate before thinking of Rune made her obliterate something. Floating in the lotus position in the safety of her room though, she couldn't help but feel an apprehension about Rune slipping into her mind. Rune bore the Mark of Scath on his back, she would've recognised it anywhere, it had been a part of her for so long, literally branded on her forehead at a time. His contact with Trigon was what she had felt that day in the park, it was their connection, so why did she feel there was more to it than that? He had true hatred for her father, of that she had no doubt but at the same time, she had also witnessed villains control others against their will previously, Robin's forced apprenticeship to Slade came to mind. _Slade. _It all came back to Slade. Was it possible he had returned? He had not shown any personal interest in her previously, even acting as Trigon's herald, while he most certainly had enjoyed his work he had kept reminding Raven about the simplicity of his work, there was no centric passion for hurting her. She had stolen an image from Rune's mind when he had been at his weakest in the medical bay, she had to see. The image of her displayed on the wall had made her fall in shock, it was just like the mind games Slade had a taste for. The image flashed through her mind and a vase shattered on a desk. Raven sighed, _sift out the emotion _she told herself, just like all the times before. "Azaroth Metrion Zinthos" she said, and instantly her ribs seemed to loosen around her lungs for her next breath. Raven felt the world beginning to melt away from around her and be replaced by the landscapes of her mind. She opened her eyes, even after defeating Trigon, the world she saw was still Limbo, this Hell she had always come to. Raven looked around the empty world, devoid of life. "Gather!" She called out. One by one, various shapes came into focus, varying in colour but all the same body. The yellow cloak of intelligence. The green cloak of bravery. The orange cloak of laziness. The grey cloak of timidity. All her. "All right" she started, speaking loudly to drown out the chatter. Timidity shrank back at the sound of her voice. "This is why I'm here. All of you have been at war over Rune. I want to know who wants what and why, let's solve this before I break something valuable."

"Just ignore it" ventured Timid, "maybe the feeling will go away."

_What feeling?! _Raven wanted to shout but that would certainly be the wrong response to this emotion. "You spoke first" Raven said instead, surprised. "That's new from you." Timid's eyes went wide and she clamped her hands over her mouth with a squeak. "Well I guess we won't have any more contributions from her" Raven noted, "anyone else?"

"It could be a suppressed feeling of guilt…" Intelligence started before her voice became just a blur to the normal Raven as the words began to be no less than ten letters each. "…As a result of the oxygen deprivation stemmed from the catastrophic blood loss." Intelligence finished.

"Right" Raven said, looking at her cluelessly. The Raven with the purple cloak began to open her mouth before the real one silenced her with a pointed finger. "Don't even say it" she warned Passion, "everything you say will just make things worse, you were probably the one who started all this."

"Why shouldn't she speak?" Bravery suddenly challenged. "What you're feeling isn't logical, that's why Nerd and Squeaky can't help you." Intelligence turned a mottled shade of red in displeasure while Timid buried her face deeper into the grey folds of her cloak.

"Interesting" Raven mused. "So what do I do?"

"Something illogical" Bravery said with a smile.

Raven looked back to Passion who winked at her. "That's a bad idea" Raven immediately said.

"Do it" Bravery urged. "Just give it a shot."

Raven sighed before looking up at a crack in the sky. It was time for her meditations to end. She looked around and finally realised what had been right in front of her the whole time, or rather what hadn't been. "Where's Guilt?" She asked.

Passion smirked. "Who said anything about you ever feeling guilty?"

_Great _Raven had time to think as she opened her eyes to her room around her, her emotions suppressed once again. She let her feet touch the ground and left her room, Bravery cheering her on. She sighed, it was time to do something illogical.

As she chanted, Rune was busy getting to work. He wouldn't dare tear the pages from Raven's book but he needed to have all the runes where he could see them. He didn't even need to look at the runes in his skin to recognise them in the pages, their shape had been carved into his mind by the pain of their carving in his skin. Rune opened the book to a new rune he hadn't used before. The book was incredible, it showed the rune, described the its effects and most importantly, ways it could be unlocked. Rune grinned as his middle and index fingers glowed a bright red, then he moved to the wall and ran his fingers along it, leaving a black trail that smoked slightly as he left it. He looked at his work with a satisfied expression, then moved to draw the next rune beside it. He started large but then realised he would quickly run out of wall space. After flipping, inverting and drawing the runes to fit every corner, he began on the ceiling. It wasn't until a couple hours after he had started that the room was full, from the ceiling to the walls to the floor as Rune sat cross-legged in the centre of his room, twirling fingers finishing the last rune as he leant back and examined his work, the contents of the book now spread out across the room. He sat for a while admiring his work before there was a knock at the door. Rune twisted his arm then waved it through a move before his elbow glowed a dark green and the runes proceeded to fade from view. He grinned as they became invisible, happy that he was gaining new powers without anyone being endangered as he clambered back to his feet to answer the door. The door slid open with a hiss to reveal a single Titan hidden in her dark blue cloak. "Raven?" Rune asked.

Raven didn't reply, her hands suddenly shot out and grabbed Rune by the face. Before he could protest, she had pulled his face down and pressed her lips hard against his. Rune's heart did a backflip and skipped a beat as she suddenly let him ago.

"What was that f-"

*WHAM*

Raven's slap hit hard across the face. She had used her powers to strengthen the blow and it had hurt, it had knocked him to the ground. Rune shook his head to clear his fogged vision as Raven stood over him. "That's for saving my life" she told him. "Don't do it again!" She added, her voice raising in anger. And before he had a chance to reply she had swept around and vanished back down the hallway.

_What the hell was that _Rune thought, _and why the hell did she have to stop?_


	7. The Heist

Raven refused to even look at Rune the next few days, much less talk to him. He had tried to get her to open up to him a few times in those days but she simply ignored him, which was incredibly frustrating. Robin had been having meetings almost daily with him as well, briefing him about the security systems of the museum and how they were going to pull the heist off. Rune had paid careful attention but it was so easy to be distracted by the memory of Raven's kiss… the strength and impulsion as she pressed her lips against his, the need behind it… then there was the second wave, where they passed the point where breaking the kiss was acceptable and she had softened but her lips had not left his, they had stayed, lingered, for just a fleeting moment more before she had broken it and attacked him as if he had barged into her room and kissed her instead of the other way round. He wasn't overly keen to seek advice either, Cyborg would probably attack him, Beast Boy would tell everybody in Jump City about it and he didn't want to go to Starfire with romantic issues when she was bogged down with her own. Rune was almost praying for some kind of fight or catastrophe to occur just to have an excuse to hit something and feel like part of a regular team again. The closest he had come to realising that wish was turning up to a bank robbery turned hostage situation, the criminals instantly surrendering when the Titans had turned up so he hadn't been allowed to hit them, as much as he would've wanted to. Rune trained almost as much as Robin to occupy his mind, where their leader found the time to study, train, perform an acceptable amount of social interaction with the team and sustain himself was secret Rune didn't believe he'd ever find out, Robin could rub two minutes together and make an hour out of each. To his relief, no one in the team seemed to pick up on the friction between him and Raven, he caught a few frowns from Beast Boy of all people but nothing came of them. It seemed like without Raven life had just stopped, like she was the last missing piece of a puzzle and all he was doing was taking and replacing pieces just to fill in the time before that piece came back in again. Rune was near sleep in his room, begging for it to take him so he could finish another useless day off when his communicator suddenly buzzed loudly. Rune scrambled in his sheets to reach out and grab it. "Yeah?" he asked the screen.

"Robin here" the communicator told him, they were talking via private channel, no one else could hear them. "It's time."

Rune sat up sharply. "I'm on my way" he replied, grabbing a shirt hanging off the corner of his bed. He pulled it over his muscular form before grabbing his pants and fastening them up before quickly leaving the room. The door slid shut behind him then a black ethereal raven floated up into his room through the floor. It wrapped back into Raven who opened her mouth only to see an empty bed. She closed it, then her eyes as well in disappointment before the black raven enveloped her once again and dragged back down from where she had entered.

Rune met the Boy Wonder down below who mounted his R-Cycle. Rune looked at him uncomfortably. "Just do it" Robin told him. The frantically paced journey was not made any more comfortable to Rune by the fact he had to wrap his arms around his leader's torso to prevent himself from being thrown off the back as Robin whipped in and out of traffic.

"You know, for a crime fighter you sure as hell break so many laws when you drive" Rune commented as he got off the back shakily once they had stopped.

"And I don't even have a licence" Robin grinned.

Rune stared for a moment, this was a game to him he realised. Robin was excited at the challenge of stealing the next gem. Rune shrugged off the growing gnaw of doubt and looked up at the museum, the stoic stone columns seems highlighted against the pitch black sky. "I thought the gem wasn't due for another few days" he asked.

"It wasn't" Robin replied. "But I made an anonymous tip-off that a thief was going to target the convoy it was being transported on so they moved it to the exhibit early in secret, the convoy is going to be a trap. With any luck, Slade may hit it and the authorities will solve that problem for us."

"Doubtful" Rune remarked. "Nothing is ever that easy."

"No" Robin agreed. "But we're the only ones who know it's here and that's a precious amount of time that we have the jump on Slade, I want to take advantage of it before he even hears a whisper about the gem."

"No point in standing around then" Rune said, "let's get to work." He ran to the drain pipe and started to shimmy up whilst Robin flew ahead tethered to his grappling gun. He had already cut a hole in the rooftop window by the time Rune had made it up and slipped inside. Rune jumped in after him and pressed his palm to the catwalk they had landed on. He felt the energy pulsing in his skin as he willed it do what he asked and a moment later, the grid of red lasers became revealed to his eyes. Robin lowered the full spectrum goggles to help him see, having pilfered the design from Cyborg's robotic eye. Rune had warned him about the theft escalating to the team and Robin had promised to destroy the goggles personally after the mission was over. Rune dusted his palms as he looked at the energy he had exposed and then he and Robin split up. Robin taking the acrobatic route, contorting his body in and out of the lasers while Rune took the unprotected circuit box to begin crossing wires. If it detected deliberate sabotage, the system would activate the alarm but to steal the gem, they were going to need to stop the system from sending a confirmation request to security when Robin deactivated the security grid. Rune grimaced, given the choice he'd have Cyborg go at something like this but they were just two and Robin had the better skill set for avoiding the lasers. After making the switches, Rune made the last connection and sighed with relief when the light stayed green. He closed the box and grinned as his phone (Rune didn't bring any of his Titans equipment) received the confirmation request which he promptly accepted. Robin walked in and Rune jumped down to him, the pair making their way as silhouettes through the building. Rune was made nervous by the T-Rex skeleton reaching for him in the dark but Robin took no notice, following his memorised layout of the blueprints.

"There" Robin pointed as the two rounded a corner. In the centre of the room they had entered was the gem. It was in a glass case on a small pillar nestled in red velvet. Robin moved to the pillar and attached the small computer which latched on and a combination of numbers and letters began flashing across the screen, ever changing. _When we get to the gem, don't get excited and just rip off the glass case to grab the gem _Rune remembered Robin's lecture coming back during one of their meetings. _The gem in plain view is a fake with a tracker embedded in it, another precaution. The real gem is hidden inside the pedestal with a state-of-the-art electronic lock. I'll use a mini-computer to hack it, we take the gem and disappear before anyone's any the wiser. With any luck they won't check until it's the night before the exhibition by which after those few days our trail will have gone cold. _Robin knelt down to the computer and looked back at Rune. "It's complicated, should take us about two minutes."

"That's all the time I'll need" purred a voice from the shadows that didn't come from Rune. Rune wheeled round in shock but Robin stood and took two aggressive steps towards the disturbance.

"Slade."

"Hello Robin" the mastermind acknowledged, taking a few steps to come into view. Rune inhaled sharply, he had seen that mask before. It was strapped to Raven that night in the tower. It was what Robin obsessed over all those days shut up alone in his room. Robin was right, it was Slade. Slade was back.

"What do you want?" Robin asked angrily.

"The same thing you want" Slade replied casually, his voice neutral and devoid of emotion. "The gems of the Ascent Trio, you did very well to hide the second one from me in your tower."

"You son of a bitch" Rune growled, stepping up to stand with Robin, his anger motivated by Slade's actions at the tower.

"Ah the new Titan, so eager to be accepted he's thrown himself at the chance to be Robin's lapdog" Slade continued, one eye turning to look at him while his voice continued, never missing a beat. "Usually it's Robin playing the sidekick, but it's good to see things change every once in a while."

"You left Raven to die" Robin managed, his anger almost seemed to surpass Rune's, neither of them wanted to do anything less than to tear Slade apart.

"I had to leave a calling card" Slade taunted, "you didn't call, didn't write, you even began to obsess over me for less than four hours a day Robin, I was afraid you were beginning to forget me, and we couldn't have that."

Robin took another step forward. "Your plan won't work Slade, we'll stop you." Rune looked to the hand that Robin had put behind his back. Though limited to a few gestures, he managed to convey the message to Rune perfectly. _One minute. Then we get the gem and get the hell out of here. _

Slade didn't move in any way but somehow he just radiated amusement, like the two young men could hear Slade's muted chuckling. "Oh Robin, how can you stop me from having free reign of the city when you can't even stop me from having free reign in your house?"

"Your arrogance will be your undoing" Robin told him. "You're so wrapped up in your own plans you can't see that you're not the only player at this game."

"And yet I'm here despite your attempt to lure me to the ambush in the convoy" Slade countered, "the members of which have all met a rather explosive end I'm afraid to say."

Rune felt his stomach go cold. Had Slade really killed them all? From Robin's warnings and lessons, he knew that Slade was certainly capable of perpetrating such an act but it still sickened him. The computer suddenly beeped shrilly behind him and suddenly three figures broke out into a sprint. Rune instantly turned on his heel and sprinted for the real gem that was now exposed by the panel sliding open halfway down the stand. He heard a whistling sound as a disc spun through the air then Rune's chin hit the ground as a coil of string wrapped his ankles together, causing him to fall. Rune shook his head, he could taste blood in his mouth from biting his tongue and could hear Robin shouting as the two fought. Rune untangled the rope and looked up to see Slade slam Robin into the ground. Robin looked up as Slade raised a boot but suddenly flew off to the side as Rune hit him with a hard tackle. "Get the gem!" Rune yelled as Slade was cleared. Robin ran with his hand outstretched for the gem but as he was an inch away, a black hand pulled the gem away as a figure flipped over Robin and snatched it first.

"Getting slow bird boy, need to lift your game" an artificial voice told him.

Robin looked up to meet the white mask of his past staring back. "Red X!" He yelled.

Red X held up the gem and gave it a little shake. It was the exact size and shape of the green gem but this one was red. "I hear these things are getting kind of valuable, thought I'd grab a slice of the pie."

"You've got no idea what's at stake here!" Robin yelled, "this isn't the time to get ideas about personal finances."

"You act like I need this" Red X sneered. "I don't need it, I want it. I'm not stealing because I need to, I'm doing because I'm good at it, and the thrill…"

Robin didn't wait for him to finish, swinging his staff trying to knock the gem out of his hands. Red X was too quick though and pulled back out of reach. Robin's next swing passed through air as Red X blurred before disappearing. "Nice try lads, better luck next time" the mocking voice echoed through the museum. Robin turned to Rune who was standing back from Slade, the new Titan sporting a bleeding lip and a bruised eye as well as nursing what appeared to be a few broken ribs.

The moment was shattered as police sirens suddenly burst out and the room began to flash blue and red. Rune whirled around in shock, "This was a set-up!"

Slade chuckled, backing up into the shadows. "You lay your traps and I lay mine. Moves and countermoves Robin, that's the game. So wrapped up in your own plans you can't see you're not the only player at this game."

Robin growled at having his own words served to him as Rune looked to him. "Dude this isn't good. We need to get out of here right now."

Robin nodded and the pair ran, but they were already too late. "Freeze!" A policeman yelled. In a second he had half a dozen more officers at his side.

Robin and Rune looked at each other dejectedly before raising their hands. _I can't let this happen _Rune thought as he looked at the look of resignation on Robin's face, then a mad idea came to him. Rune bent his arm and slammed his elbow into the side of Robin's head. "You aren't catching me today Titan!" He yelled, grabbing Robin and throwing him at the officers before running.

"Bring him down!" He heard a shout, then gunfire erupted and the wall beside his head began exploding. Rune ran into the next room and almost straight into an officer. _The worse I act the more convincing I am_ he thought, snatching the gun and backhanding the officer. He moved to the next one and hammered him with a volley of punches before escaping with a series of flips to avoid being shot. Rune cleared another room with relative ease, these officers may have been SWAT but slam one's head through a glass case or into a wall and they fall unconscious just the same. Rune was almost thinking his plan wasn't going to work as he seized a gun and pointed it at a museum guard before a bird-a-rang flew out of the air and knocked it out of his grip. Rune just had the time to grin before the guard fired his taser and Rune fell the ground convulsing. Rune had just enough time to see Robin helping one of Rune's victims before he was dragged back to his feet and a pair of handcuffs were tightened around his wrists to the point where they almost were cutting the skin. "You were lucky. We ran his face and saw you guys already took him down a while ago." An officer told Robin as they watched Rune get pushed into the back of a police car. "We were thinking you two were together until the coward showed his true colours and attacked you like that. Jump City almost declared Robin a public enemy, wouldn't that have made a bad night."

"Yeah" Robin agreed absentmindedly, his head swirling by what Rune had done to take the sole blame. Rune met his eyes from inside the car gave a small wink before he was driven away. "Almost."


	8. Crime and Punishment

Rune sat at the table in the police interrogation room, head slumped forward both from tiredness and the lack of general motivation to keep it up. They had been holding him for hours, trying to sweat him out after he told them his initial story. _I'm a drifter, I got hitched by the Teen Titans but I broke out and tried to rip off the museum to make some cash to get the hell out of the city. Had a nice little look-round but the spiky-haired dude got me and we had a fistfight, that's it. _It wasn't a great story by any means but he hadn't had the time to come up with anything better so he just had to run more lies through his mind to patch the holes in the story. The security system coming down, he could blame that one on the Red X guy, make it look like he followed in Red X as an opportunist and got caught out for it. He could maybe escape with a trespassing and a breaking and entering charge, small fine and on a train to nowhere in particular before anyone has time to blink. That's what he would've done before, before he had friends but now it was all different. Rune sighed and rubbed his eyes groggily, he couldn't leave the gems, couldn't leave Slade to wreak havoc, the team to fight the mastermind without his help, _I couldn't leave Raven, _the thought pierced through his mind like an arrow. Shit, he still had no idea where they stood, she had kissed him, slapped him then ignored him for days unending. Sometimes missing out on a normal teenage life was a blessing. Unbeknownst to him, five teenagers were watching him through the one-way mirror window, they had all come at once after Robin had called them, he had confessed to everything, though they still remained doubtful about Slade. "The jewel is missing and with no Red X or Slade, they'll want to make an example out of him" Cyborg warned, another simple fact they stated to remind Robin of his mistake.

"He will not escape without severe punishment" Starfire added, worried. It was not his fault, she blamed Robin for dragging him into this. As much as she loved her boyfriend, she was not blind to his faults and knew his indifference to employing questionable means to accomplish his goals was a dangerous combination when it was combined with his ability to rally someone to his cause. She had flown ahead of the team and met Robin on the steps to the station. Embracing him gently and kissing him even gentler, Starfire felt Robin almost crumble into the hug, he had failed miserably and they both knew it. The T-Car pulled up moments later and Starfire felt Robin stiffen once more, he was their indomitable leader once more, not her boyfriend. She sighed as the team gathered and joined Robin as the proceeded to watch Rune wait his judgement in the interrogation room, alone. Raven hadn't spoken a word but Robin could feel her trying to bore holes in the back of his head with her glowering stare. Every time she saw Rune she remembered their kiss, how she had done it simply to satisfy passion but after she had done enough, she had relaxed and realised she was slightly enjoying the feeling of her lips against hers. The taste of his lips, the surprise melting into something… else, the feelings in him were stirring even more in her. She could feel Passion brimming with delight as her cheeks flared up red and her hand had raised itself unbidden to hold him to her. Sensibility had broken back into her mind and she had quickly broken away, the hand left with nothing to do but to strike him to excuse itself for raising towards his face. Then she had left in a hush, her cheeks going an even deeper red and her heart hammering in her chest. As soon as she had rounded the corner she had leant against the wall to take a few deep breaths, disbelieving what she had just done but not entirely regretful. Every time she had seen him afterwards he had raised inquisitive and thoughtful eyes towards her, wanting answers. Raven wanted to tell him but those every meeting with those eyes raised those feelings in her again and Raven knew she wouldn't be able to wouldn't be able to talk to him without her tongue betraying her feelings to him and she had fled when she could and blatantly ignored him when she could not. She could see the confusion and seeds of hurt in his eyes and felt the feelings mirrored in herself but forced herself to conceal them, swallowing it all back down with another mouthful of herbal tea. He made meditation particularly difficult for her, she often snapped at herself in her head. _You are the master of your own feelings, control them and get over this little crush! _Returning to Nevermore hadn't helped either, Passion was so full of herself that eventually Raven almost lent strength to Anger before leaving her mind with even more pent up frustration than before. After accidentally vaporising a pillow she tried to fluff with her powers, Raven sighed amongst the shower of feathers and tried to get some sleep, knowing that Passion was practically dancing a jig inside her own head, running rampant and knowing it. Now she was staring at Rune who was hiding his own emotions in a mask in the room and she was wondering if she would ever have the chance to unravel those feelings, because of Robin's schemes.

"We could break him out" Beast Boy suggested, "it's not like anyone here could stop us."

"That would just be making us criminals" Robin brushed him off. "If Rune wanted to break out of here he could've done so easily himself. He made that sacrifice for me and becoming criminals ourselves would be doing him a disservice."

"He shouldn't have had to make a sacrifice at all" Raven cut in coldly.

Robin turned on her. "What do you want to me say Raven?" He demanded. "I made a gamble, it didn't pay off, are you happy?"

"You didn't gamble" Raven replied testily. "You made him gamble for you so he would take the fall if all went wrong."

"I didn't make him do anything!"

"Oh please, as if the new member a week into being inducted into the Titans felt like he had a choice when the immortal leader involves him in secret plans. You backed him into a corner."

"This isn't about him!" Robin's voice was raised, putting the Titans on edge. Raven didn't drop her furious gaze though, her voice cold and steely. "This is about stopping Slade!"

"And you'd sacrifice any one of us to meet your goals" Raven accused, her voice cutting like a knife.

Robin stared at her for a brief moment. "Take a walk" he told her, "come back when you've cooled off." She stormed out through a portal in the door, not bothering to actually open it. Robin looked at the others. "You're free to go with her."

Cyborg laid a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder, "come on, we'll calm her down a bit."

"What?" Beast Boy exclaimed. "We can't leave…" Cyborg nodded towards Robin who was facing the window with his shaking fists clenched, Starfire slowly approaching him with an outstretched hand. "Oh" he realised before giving a nervous laugh. "Yeah we'll check on Raven" he excused, leaving the room with Cyborg.

"Robin?" Starfire asked as she laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Star" Robin said as he held her hand in his against in his shoulder. "I fucked up. I made a mistake, I let my hatred of Slade blind my judgement and now Rune's taking the blame for me. This kid's barely known us a week and already he's nearly killed himself for us and is preparing to take a fall for my mistakes. What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know" Starfire told him as she gently tugged on his hand, pulling him around to face her. She could see every line of worry, of guilt, of doubt etched into his face and the same emotions behind his mask, even if no one else could. "Robin" she whispered his name pulling him into a hug. Robin buried his face into her shoulder, taking deep ragged breaths that shook his body a little with every exhale. He eventually pulled himself up to look her in her gorgeous green eyes. "What would I do without you?"

"Date Kitten" she joked.

Robin's jaw dropped in mock horror. "I already am committed to one psychotic villain obsessed with me in Slade" he told her, "I think that's quite enough." Starfire giggled and Robin kissed her. "I will find a way to make this right" he promised her when they had broken and rested their foreheads against one another. "From the start when I saw him as an experiment, you saw him as a person and I ignored you. I saw him as a means to my ends tonight and again I was wrong. I'll fix this, then we'll go after Slade." They turned to look at Rune who somehow seemed to know and waved at the window understandingly.

"Come" Starfire said, gently pulling him. "He will be fine for a few hours without us, let us go home."

Robin looked once more at Rune. "Okay" he consented, pulling open the door and walking out after Starfire.

Rune breathed out deeply and put his feet up on the table, if they were going to make him wait then he would wait damn comfortably. He had almost managed to snooze when a guard walked in, "time to go", he raised a key for Rune's handcuffs. Rune held up his unshackled wrists and threw the open cuffs to the guard who looked at them.

"What?" Rune asked the guard who seemingly didn't know how to react. "Leave me in a room for five hours I get bored." Rune was then escorted to the garage under considerably heavier guard to an armoured truck. "Where are we going?" Rune asked uncertainly.

"Transfer" was all he was told before he was roughly pushed into the back of the truck and five guards took the vacant seats around him. Were the Titans behind this? He knew Robin would be smart enough to abstain from getting directly involved but this wasn't regular routine, something was actively happening here. If the police system wasn't hard to hack, Cyborg might be erasing his charges but that wouldn't explain why he was being transferred instead of simply released. Rune's eyes looked side to side and landed on a guard's weapon in his lap, the finger resting on the trigger. Rune swallowed a lump in his throat and forced him to remain calm, these guards did not have good intentions for him. Rune straightened his back and flexed his fingers, preparing to activate a rune to pop the cuffs. He needed to mentally map how he was going to drop five armed guards in the confined space before any of them got a shot off and escape. The truck roared into life and into the light as it left the underground garage. Rune forced his heartbeat to slow as he closed his eyes and began to think. Rune had mentally got to four of the guards when a distinct change in the sound made him open his eyes. The noises of the tires against the ground, they were on a rural road. _This isn't a transfer _Rune suddenly realised. This was an execution, they were going to drop him in the middle of nowhere and put a bullet in his skull. Rune mentally calculated and estimated they had been driving for about two hours. He didn't seem to be the only one noticing the duration of the trip. "Hey Mick" a guard yelled through the grate to the driver's cab. "Where exactly is this place?"

"I don't know, I don't see nothing" the driver called back. "Might a glitch with the GPS system, we might turn back."

Rune had just enough time to be confused before there was an explosion, the ceiling became the floor and the world went black.

"What do you mean he's not here?" Robin demanded, leering over the counter at the front desk to the desk sergeant.

"I mean he's not in our system" the desk sergeant repeated, stammering as he checked the screen blankly telling him _No results found _for the third time.

"I saw him this morning!" Robin told him loudly. "He was in Holding Room Four!"

The sergeant revised the search with the new information but shook his head. "No prisoner of that name was in Holding Room Four, or any other room for that matter.

"Arms covered in tattoos" Cyborg told him.

"Shaggy black hair" Beast Boy added, morphing into a dog to demonstrate.

"Very athletic build" Starfire contributed.

"Violet eyes" Raven ventured.

"Our friend" Robin finished, not slightly amused by this game.

The officer shook his head in a stupefied fashion. "I only started my shift an hour ago" he blabbered, "haven't seen anyone like it."

"Well find us someone who has!" Robin ordered.

The officer almost looked like he was beginning to melt under Robin's glare, indeed, there were two growing patches of sweat growing under his armpits. "All I can do is tell you there was a prisoner in Holding Room Four, but not your friend" he told them. "Says this guy was convicted of murder, assault, rape, aggravated assault, he attacked a girl and killed two cops."

"Where is he?" Robin demanded.

"Says he was transferred about two hours ago" the officer told them.

"Robin" Cyborg said, arm outstretched. He was remotely accessing the building's surveillance system. "It's him." Robin and the others watched a recording of Rune being loaded into a truck on the screen on Cyborg's arm. "Someone hacked into the police computers and changed his record" Cyborg said, "including the transfer."

"But why?" Beast Boy asked.

"To get him out a fortress filled with Jump City's finest" Starfire said.

"Is someone breaking him out?" Robin asked.

"Or are they looking to just break him?" Raven said, her gaze coming to rest on Robin.

Robin gritted his teeth. He rounded back on the desk sergeant. "Where was he transferred to?"

The desk sergeant seemed to shrivel as he processed the new request for information. "Maximum security penitentiary but…" He trailed off.

"But what?" Robin demanded. He seemed to be inches away from grabbing the officer and shaking the answers out of him.

"It never arrived."

Robin felt a familiar weight crash on his mind. "Communications?"

"Uhh…" the desk sergeant said, pushing his seat a bit further back from the computer. "Non responsive."

"I can track it but only just" Cyborg said, "it must be pretty badly damaged."

Robin was already halfway out the door and running for his R-Cycle. "Titans, go!"

Rune gritted his teeth as he woke to feel nearly his entire body in pain. _Pain is good _he told himself, _pain means you're alive_. He wished there better ways of life telling him he was alive. Rune pushed himself off the gravel road, there were a number of cuts bleeding from his face, hands and generally everywhere. He opened his eyes to see only blurry images but he could make out enough to see random scattered fires around him, as well as a major one burning from the remaining black cab. Rune dragged himself along the ground towards it, recollecting the events before he had blacked out. There had been an explosion and the truck had flipped. Then the back doors had blown off while the truck was in midair and Rune and all the guards had been thrown out before the truck had exploded again, this time with a much larger force. Rune's vision was good enough that as he dragged his way closer to the prison van he could make out the shape of the body. It was lying slumped halfway out of the destroyed windscreen, the fires had burnt the flesh black. Rune pushed himself away in shock and felt his fingers dip into something sticky. He pulled them up to his eyes to see them wet with red. It was blood. Rune looked slowly, eyes following the puddle until they saw the body of the guard it stemmed from, one of the five who had been thrown out with him. Rune looked around in shock as he saw all of their bodies scattered around him, limbs bent at unnatural angles like broken toy dolls. Rune forced the bile to remain in his stomach, what the hell was going on? The sound of footsteps reached him as there was suddenly a yell and a piece of the truck that had flown off was suddenly kicked out of the way as a figure in black made its way out of the fires raging around it. Rune recognised the figure immediately. "Slade" he gasped, "…how?"

"Don't be impressed" Slade told him. "It was so easy to hack to police computer and truck GPS systems it was almost beneath me."

"But why?"

"You have something I want" Slade told him, taking a malevolent step forward. Rune began to shuffle back, his legs refused to stand.

"Red X took the gem" he exclaimed.

"I'm not talking about the gem" Slade said, still getting closer. He stepped over a body without breaking his stride.

"I don't have anything!" Rune cried, still frantically shuffling back but Slade was catching him easily.

"Oh yes you do" Slade purred, kneeling look him level in the eyes. "You have what I gave you."

"I've never seen you in my life before" Rune said, panicking.

"You didn't have to see me" Slade said reaching for him but whirled suddenly as the was a roar and the shadow of a motorcycle blocked out the sun. Slade looked to see the three bird-a-rangs flying through the air, two of which he dodged and the last he caught. "Robin" he said, crushing the projectile in his grip. "Come to be embarrassed once more?"

"Not this time" Robin growled, moving in. Slade easily dodged and avoided Robin's attacks but the Boy Wonder did succeed in putting himself between Rune and Slade. Rune shook his head, he had to get his focus back, Robin couldn't fight Slade alone, he was outclassed both physically and mentally. Slade allowed Robin to push him further back as Robin pursued him until they disappeared from Rune's sight. Rune struggled to stand but barely made it to one knee before he toppled over again.

"Rune! You must stay down!" Starfire's voice pierced through the air as he caught him from the hitting the ground roughly again.

Rune heard the sound of kicked-up gravel as the T-Car skidded to a stop behind him. "No" he pointed after Robin through the smoke. "Robin…"

"Who caused this destruction?" Starfire insisted, unwilling to leave Rune for the moment. Beast Boy flew over as a pterodactyl and with an powerful aimed flap of his wings cleared the smoke obscuring their view just in time to see Robin catch the adversary with a figure with a spinning kick to the jaw. The figure raised himself to one knee, readjusted the mask on his face and turned to face the group facing him. "Him" Rune whispered to Starfire, levelling an accusing finger.

"It's not possible" Cyborg said, shocked.

"Hello Titans" Slade said, before booting Robin in the stomach back into the midst of the group. The team had just enough time to look up to see Slade had thrown a disc after him that exploded with a flash of light.

"Argh!" Starfire cried out.

"My eyes!" Beast Boy shouted. About a minute later, their vision wore off from the shock save Rune's to find Slade had disappeared.

"He's really back" Cyborg mused in shock. He had been the biggest pillar of resistance among the Titans arguing against Slade's return so he had been sobered the most by the sight.

"And we have to stop him" Robin told them. "Together."

"And what about me?" Rune asked, near blind. His eyesight had been affected worse than any of them as his eyes had been slower to adjust to the light, it would probably take days to recover.

He fumbled blindly before he felt a hand take his hand lift him up off the ground and wrap it around a slim bodice. "We take you home" Raven's voice spoke to him.

Despite the cuts, the blurred excuse of eyesight and the enormous amount of fatigue and pain he was in, Rune found he couldn't think of the situation as anything else than perfect.


	9. Searching Cities and Souls

The sighting of Slade had everyone worked up, but everyone reacted differently. Cyborg almost seemed to shut off his emotions, he worked at the console with wires plugged into every socket, tracking down any lead. Beast Boy was much simpler, increasing his diet to include about three times as much as tofu and telling about three times the unfunny jokes. Starfire was unused to to the kind of espionage so she made it her business to help others and occasionally went for flights over the city to check for anything out of the ordinary, as impossible as it was for Slade to make a mistake so basic. Raven was usually found consulting her tomes for any sort of edge or in meditation but she was found spending a curious amount of time with Rune in the medical bay who had a thick layer of bandages around his eyes. "Do you find it as annoying as I do that I have spent more time in this bed than I have in my own?" He asked with a smile.

Raven looked up from her book she was sitting with beside her bed and tried to smother a smile.

Rune grinned. "I heard that."

"I didn't even make a noise" Raven protested.

Rune shrugged. "Too bad, I heard it and you practically just admitted it."

"For your information I am researching a particular spell I think would be useful" Raven told him, flipping the next page extra loudly just to prove her point as she kept searching. "Slade likes to taunt us with robotic forms of his likeness, I think there's a spell that could reveal to me where Slade is if I had one of his clones."

"How?" Rune asked.

Raven looked at him for a moment before setting the book down and pulling the chair closer to him. "A long time ago, in a dimension quite like this one, a sorcerer painted a picture of himself and gave it to his wife. He had to leave for a long time and didn't know where his journey was going to take him. She worried for him so he enchanted the portrait so that she would be able to see him through it whenever she so desired, so that she would know he was safe. The technique has gone through a few series of uses, like a person would wait at a location, their friend would use the portrait to see where they were and go to meet them."

"And you think you can use that to catch Slade?"

Raven shrugged. "Well his robotic clones are built to look exactly like him, to sound like him, to fight like him. It's not exactly a portrait of him but it is his own image so I figure while it may be bending the rules a little, the spell might just work."

"It'd be nice to end something quickly for once" Rune remarked, fumbling for the bottle of water on his bedside table. His fingertips clumsily shunted it where it fell over and rolled off. "Dammit!" Rune cursed, clenching a hand into a fist and turning away. Raven's hand on his face made him turn back.

"Drink" she whispered as he felt the bottle against his lips.

"I'm not a baby" he told her but gratefully took a long swallow anyway.

"You're welcome" she told him, making Rune flinch. Her voice was barely a whisper but he could hear her so clearly. How close was she to him? He could hear her quiet breath, her head had to be inches from her, where were her lips? Raven ran her hand down his chin. "You need a shave" she told him.

Rune reached up to feel for himself but his hand caught hers instead. There was a moment of silence while Rune held her small gentle hand in his. Her fingers were long and graceful, feeling like they possessed the dexterity of a concert pianist whereas Rune's were course and rough, more suited to blue collar labour. "Rune…" she said, her voice drifting off.

"Raven" he said in the same tone. "I need to know. That kiss…"

"…was just a kiss" she interjected, cutting him off. "I'm sorry it happened."

Rune was silent for a moment before realising she was expecting him to say something. "Okay." It was all he could manage whilst holding his emotion back.

"Good" Raven said awkwardly, pulling her hand free from his grip. "I need to check another book," she told him, "I'll probably be in my room for the night."

Rune nodded. "Right" he told her, sitting up for her leaving.

"Get some rest" she told him, "you'll be out tomorrow." The door closed behind her.

Raven closed the door then pressed her head against it, Passion going wild with rage at what she said was starting to give her a headache. She took a sharp breath in, and left, clutching the book tightly to her breast and walking a lot faster than she did normally.

Rune fell back against the pillow with a sigh, she and he both knew it was for the best but the the same time he felt like she ran a knife across his face instead of a hand. He traced its path with his finger and had the briefest smile, he _did _need a shave. The smile quickly vanished as he remembered what had come after it. He groaned as he tugged a little at the bandages constricting around his throbbing head but Raven had told him the bandages wouldn't come off until tomorrow morning. Rune reached for his bottle trying to have something to do with his hands but swore with a lot stronger language as he only succeeded in hearing the bottle hitting the ground once more. Feeling completely and utterly useless without Raven beside him, Rune laid back, pretending to watch the sunset out the window he pretended he could look out.

Rune was tearing at the bandages around his eyes the moment he awoke, quite literally as he managed to accidentally give himself a scratch beside his right eyebrow. After completing Starfire's tests to confirm his vision was back to one hundred percent, Rune made his way to the lounge and met up with Robin. The Boy Wonder looked uncomfortable for a moment before starting. "I just want to say…"

"Save it" Rune said, silencing him. He had just enough time to be surprised with the authority in his voice before he kept on talking. "It doesn't matter now. How is the search going?"

"No sign of either Slade or Red X" Robin told him. "Cyborg hasn't found anyone looking to sell one of the gems so we can assume Red X is waiting for the heat to die down before he sells it onto a fence. Slade is untraceable."

"Agreed" Rune said, "We won't be able to interfere with Slade until he wants us to, until then Red X is our best and only shot at getting another of the Ascent Trio. Next thing is my current status with the authorities."

"Already sorted" Robin told him. "Due to the horrendous computing error, lack of proper protection and the threat of a legal team the calibre of Bruce Wayne's, the police graciously decided to drop all charges considering you didn't actually steal anything."

"One problem out of the way" Rune said, allowing himself a smile. "So what's our next move?"

"For now we keep the search up" Robin said, "while combatting the more regular crime. We're going to have one Titan patrolling Jump City at all times, with all the recent unrest, we don't want some opportunist thugs deciding to lend a hand in spreading anarchy. Beast Boy is in town now, Starfire is with him."

"So what can I do?" Rune asked, desperate to have a purpose again.

"You get the short straw" Robin told him, sharing a grin with Cyborg. "Raven's not been herself lately, she tries to hide it but her powers have been more unstable as well, despite her increased meditations. You get to play confidante, ask her what's wrong."

Rune groaned internally at the prospect of having to put himself in such a personal situation with Raven so close to her shutting whatever connection they had down. "And it has to be me because…?"

"You're the guy she likes to talk about least" Cyborg called over his shoulder with a tone indicating he was very happy not being in Rune's shoes. "If anyone needs bonding time, it's you and her."

Rune rolled his eyes, "this is so bullshit" he muttered as he left the room.

Reaching Raven's room, he hesitated before pressing a hand the door and leaving the imprint of a rune on it. He waited for a moment before the rune pulsed, giving him an image of what was inside. Rune braced himself, then walked in quietly. Despite Raven sitting in her lotus position, he knew she wasn't meditating. "Sun's up" he told her. "Haven't seen you at breakfast."

"Meditation can prolong the duration for which I can go without sustenance" Raven told him in a tone that sounded annoyed. "Why are you in my room?"

"Not my idea" Rune said, looking around. Since Raven could levitate she had no need for chairs so the room was devoid of any real place to sit, and Rune thought it would be a tad audacious to move for Raven's bed leaving him with no real choice but to awkwardly stand. "But you've been avoiding me, and everyone has noticed. They want us to figure out whatever this is."

"There is no issue between us" Raven replied evenly.

"Is that lie meant to fool me" Rune asked, "or you?"

"It isn't a lie" Raven said, grit entering her voice.

"Ah" Rune said with a mock understanding nod. "You."

"There is nothing!" Raven said, her voice escalating to a yell for the last word. A black shockwave flew from her body and threw Rune back across the floor. Immediately she turned around with a hand flying to her mouth in horror. "I'm sorry" she blurted, "I didn't mean…"

"You treat all your house guests like this?" Rune asked, allowing her to help him up. Despite the diction, his tone was forgiving with the slightest touch of cheek.

"Usually just Beast Boy" she replied. She looked around at the mess her room was in thanks to the shockwave. She sighed, thanks to her powers' recent unpredictability she would have to clean this mess by hand later. "My powers are throwing a small tantrum, I should meditate."

"And how's that working out for you?" Rune asked, making Raven sigh and scrunch her eyes shut.

"What do you want from me?" She asked, letting her voice reveal the tiredness she felt.

"I want you to talk" Rune said, crossing the distance between them, she took a step back. "If you feel like I am right now then you feel every time we talk there is this damn… something hanging in the background that we feel like we need to hold back but frankly I don't want to!"

"But that's the difference between us" Raven told him sadly. "You don't want to, but I have to." She turned from him and resumed her pose.

"I don't believe that" Rune told her, not letting her go. He sat down beside her. "Controlling your emotion is not the same as stifling them, you don't have to be cold to be in control, that's Slade, not you."

"But you give emotion an inch and it will take a mile from you" Raven turned to face him. She remembered Passion screaming at her to traverse those lose few inches with her lips in the medical centre, this was only going to lead to the same sort of mess, she knew it. "I don't have enough to give."

"Because you refuse to take" Rune insisted. "You remind me of me in some ways."

"We aren't alike" Raven immediately replied.

"Because opposites attract?" Rune asked.

"What?" Raven asked, caught off guard. Rune grinned and Raven felt a blush flare up in her cheeks that not even her cowl could entirely obscure. She couldn't believe she had been caught by the line lamer than something that Beast Boy would usually come up with. "So how would would you tell me to control my emotions instead of stifling them?"

"Well it's like being stuck in a plane for hours, before you're ready to sit back down and be small, you need to stretch and be big, then you're able to relax."

Raven rolled her eyes. "I feel like I'm talking to an oversized fortune cookie."

Rune grinned. "I'm no less sweet" he told her. He leant closer in.

Raven didn't move away as he kissed her lips softly. He leant back slightly and pulled back her hood, revealing her reddened cheeks. He brushed a stray strand of her violet hair out of her face. "Better?" He asked her.

Raven briefly retreated into herself to find the throbbing in her head subsiding, her breath coming easier. "Yeah" she said, surprised.

Rune smiled, "happy to help" he told her. He prepared to stand but she reached out and held his hand preventing him from standing. "Raven?" He asked.

"I was wondering" Raven said, looking at the ground. Her hair fell back out to hide her face from him. "Could you stay for a while? Maybe we could… do it again? Just once" she breathed as Rune leant back in quickly, his hand stroking back her hair as she elevated herself and leant forward against his chest. Rune's hands fell to hold her back and body close to his as she grabbed small fistfuls of her hair as she kissed him again, Passion growing stronger inside her with every taste of his lips. Her lips gave way to Rune's tongue as it penetrated her mouth and began wrestling with hers. Usually just the thought would have made Raven shudder but instead she pressed her tongue forward in return as she pressed Rune's shoulders back and they leant back to the point where she was on top of him. Rune's hands ran up and down her sides, every touch of his palms made that part of her skin explode with warmth whilst the rest of her felt cold by comparison. Rune rolled her over deftly and broke the kiss much to her initial disappointment but the first kiss to her neck made everything more than forgiven. Rune kissed his way down the side of her neck with delicacy, but there was also strength in the way he held her yet pinned her. Raven arched her back and her head feel back to see the door behind them making out on the floor. _If anyone walks in, we'll definitely be able to tell them we solved any problem between us _ she thought. She could feel Passion beginning to burn out all her other emotions, filling her breast with heat and desire. It was beginning to become too much she realised, they had gone too far. _Do I care? _She wondered but sense took control of her lips as they stopped her next moaned exhale of air. "Wait" Raven started to say. She had more questions before she was ready for this. _You lost so much, endured so much, how can you be normal? Why doesn't it haunt you? _Rune stopped immediately and looked up as she brushed his face but Passion flared, being given more power than even Raven had expected. Unbidden, her powers jumped the physical bridge between Raven and Rune and broke into his mind, very unlike the gentle viewing she had done with Robin years before. Rune was unprepared for the mental assault and gasped as Raven took control of his mind. Images began to flash in Raven's mind, memories that were not hers. A laugh as a black silhouette shared a sunset with him. A flash of fear as a red sky raced toward them. A moment of horror as his hand reached towards the girl frozen in stone. Loneliness as the world of death never changed. Hope as the blue sky raced back towards him and panic as he disappeared. A scream as his hand was covered in fire and his mind was going wild spasming in unfathomable pain. Bewilderment as the hand bore a glowing symbol etched into his palm. Raven felt horror creep into her as she relived a dozen more memories, hope, happiness, fear, sadness and guilt. A twisting burning sword of guilt driven deep through her heart. Raven had grown up being told it was her destiny to destroy the world, she had lived believing she would be the harbinger of the deaths of the people who meant the most to her; her friends. And yet she had never felt a guilt like this. The last the thing she heard was the screaming before she was pulled from Rune's mind. She breathed in sharply and sat up off the floor. She looked around wildly before the sound of shaky and fast paced breathing caught her attention. Rune was a few metres away from her, he backed away until pushing himself up against the edge of her bed. His face was white, he was covered in sweat and his knees were up around his chest and his eyes shimmered with the images she had forced him to relive. "Rune" Raven said, her voice soft and touched.

Rune ignored the gesture, shaking his head as he stared at the floor. "I didn't know I had still had those" he said in a shaky whisper. Raven moved to reach him, to comfort him, to tell him everything was okay but the male Titan saw her hand come up and flinched away from it. "I have to go" he told her hurriedly, standing up and retreating as quickly as he could out the door. Raven was left sitting on the floor of her room covered in books from toppled stacks, repeating the same two terrified questions in her head over and over again, _what have I done? And what was done to Rune?_


	10. Rage and Other Broken Things

Rune offered to take the next shift on the city patrol, replacing Beast Boy. He kept going for the shift immediately after as well, despite two messages from Raven to take his place and more than a dozen calls through the night which he had ignored. Jump City was a haven compared to some places such as Gotham but look hard enough and you could still find crime in one of the many dark alleys this city had to offer. Rune hopped from rooftop to rooftop, traces of Slade or Red X were next to nothing so the Titans had quickly relegated their patrols to simply the crime centric areas. If they could spread word that the Titans were cracking down on crime of the non-super element, they could hope that the latest spike of crime would die down. Rune was so wrapped up in his own thoughts he forgot to acknowledge in the exhilarating feeling of running across the rooftops, planting one foot after other and taking the leap to the next roof should have felt like sticking up a middle finger straight to Death's face but there was nothing. Rune stopped as he ran out of buildings and leant down to his knees, surprised at the exhaustion in his breath, he must've run near two dozen entire blocks. Cursing himself for his idiocy, Rune began to run back the opposite way, this time paying close attention. He could feel the bags growing under his eyes and the heaviness growing in his limbs but he paid it no mind, the only thing that remained with him were the visions Raven had put him through. He had buried those memories a long time ago, left Gotham, abandoned his old life, he had died that day, and Darkside was born. _I wasn't the only one who died that day _his brain reminded him. Rune gritted his teeth and struck out at the closest thing within reach, in this case a TV antennae that lost signal for the twelve apartments in the building under his feet. He leapt a few more gaps before his body demanded rest or his lungs would burst. Rune sat down, his legs hanging off the edge of the building, watching various bugs fly around the bright bulb of a street light below. His communicator buzzed and he flipped it open. "Report" Robin's voice barked.

"Nothing happening" Rune told him, "just me and the moths. Not the killer monster things like Silkie" he added quickly.

"You sound tired" Robin told him. "Come back to the Tower, I'll have Cyborg replace you."

"I'm fine" Rune told him. "I'll return at sunrise."

"But-"

"Sunrise" Rune repeated, cutting him off. He killed the transmission. The communicator buzzed a second later and Rune checked it again, this time it was a message, from Raven. _Please, come home._

Rune shook his head and deactivated the tracker, he knew she would be monitoring his location to see if her message worked, and that she would come to him if it didn't. Rune got back to his feet despite his need for more rest and decided to move on when the whispers of a protest and a scream reached his ears. Rune turned and listened harder. _Single female _his ears told him, _intoxicated, physically struggling. _He knew there was a less-than-glamorous nightclub in this vicinity, he'd been thinking about trying to score a gig as a bartender there before he'd accidentally blown up a car with an awoken rune and triggered a fight with five teenage superheroes. Running towards the sound, another voice reached a voice. It was a man's. _Aggressive, dominant. _There was another element to it as well. _Lust. This is no mugging. _The man's voice slithered into Rune's ear and almost made him physically wretch. "Let me go!" The woman screamed. Judging by the pleading tone in her voice, she was obviously overpowered, Rune knew that the begging would only encourage the man. He leapt the last rooftop and looked down into the piss-stained alley below. A blonde in a mini skirt and flimsy shirt was being pinned by her wrists to the wall by a man in a brown leather jacket and cap. He had dark greasy brown hair and a smattering of facial hair. He was desperately trying to kiss her, slathering his tongue over her lips, neck and ear lobes despite her struggling feebly against him. The small neon pink sign of the bar's back door dimly lit up the vile scene. Rune vaulted down off the fire escape and landed light enough to avoid injury but heavy enough to make a sound loud enough to disturb the man's escalating attempt. Rune's face was hidden in the darkness and he wanted to keep it that way. This man had really picked the wrong time to piss him off, Rune had a lot of pent up anger he wanted to let out. "Let her go" he called.

"Or what?" The man called in return. He had drunk enough to become foolishly emboldened and his pride was not about to be sacrificed to the smaller silhouette. "You gonna try and stop me?"

"Yeah" Rune replied grittily. "And you're really going to regret making me."

"I think you better get out of here before I wipe this alley with your face" the man told him.

"That'd be impressive to see for a guy barely struggling with a wasted ninety pound bimbo."

The man's smirk quickly melted away. The girl, obviously terrified of this ominous stranger, tried to pull away but the man slammed her back against the wall and slapped her hard across the face. Rune reached into his pocket and his fingers pulled out a blade, it was time to end this. He saw the silhouette of the man's hand beginning to roughly force its way up the girl's skirt and he threw the first one. The man cried in pain and retreated a few steps before looking at the razor blade that was sticking out of his wrist, he winced as he yanked it out. Blood poured out of the cut half an inch deep. "You're going to pay for this you piece of-"

Rune's next blade slicing a line under his eye interrupted his next curse word, ironically eliciting an even worse word from the man.

"You're going to pay for that!" He yelled.

Rune didn't react. "I'd go home if I were you" he told the girl. She nodded and backed away. When the man didn't speak he continued. "That wound on your wrist will require a doctor" He said. "You leave now to seek medical attention and that can be a peaceful end to the night."

The man took several breaths through his gritted teeth, his breath turning to steam in the alley. He looked to be imitating a bull before charging. _And I've already beaten one of those _Rune thought. Sure enough, the man charged with a roar and hail of spittle flying off his trembling lip. Rune didn't move a muscle as the man charged at him, he just stared and waited. At the last moment, Rune nimbly stepped out of the way and the man crashed through air tumbling to the ground in a heap. He pulled himself back up, his jacket stained and his pants soaked from the roll across the dank corridor. Rune watched the man get back to his feet, breath punctuated by inebriated mutterings. He ran at Rune trying to tackle him but the Titan replied by slamming an elbow down into his back before lifting a knee that connected solidly to man's jaw. He stumbled backwards, dazed, recovering only in time to be knocked straight back into confusion as Rune hammered his jaw with a roundhouse kick straight out of Robin's book. The man went down to one knee against the dumpster, regaining his breath. Rune thought he was about to concede defeat as the man checked the trail of blood dribbling from his lip but that was misconceived as the man reacted in even further anger seeing blood on his fingers after wiping his face. That's when the knife came up. Rune heard it before he saw it. The unmistakable click of the switchblade, he knew it well enough from when he had one himself during his… darker moments. The glint of the steel flying towards his gut in the dim pink light was all Rune needed to switch off the higher thought processes and just operate solely on instinct. The same instincts that had spent all day sweltering in guilt and sadness that had since soured to anger. Rune seized the man's wrist stabbing forward and twisted it away. The man hissed in pain and dropped the knife but Rune didn't stop there, he couldn't. He twisted the wrist a degree further, snapping the bone as the man cried out before gagging as Rune struck him in the throat with stiffened fingers with his other hand. Still holding the wrist, Rune delivered two shots to the gut and an uppercut to the jaw, knocking the man back onto the ground dazed and confused. Normally Rune would've left the man far before there, but not this time. Rune knelt down, pressing a knee into the man's sternum as he grabbed the man's collar and punched him in the face. The man blinked, trying to gain a sense of his surroundings. Rune hit him.

And hit him.

Again.

And again.

The man's nose broke with a messy squirt of blood that Rune felt splatter on his own face. Rune didn't care though, he couldn't care. The thought of what this man was going to do to the woman was filling his mind and driving his fist. The girl screamed and ran to Rune, screaming at him to stop but Rune unintentionally struck her pulling back his fist and she fell away. Rune felt distant, far away, as his anger flowed out into unmaking the scum before him before a voice called out his name from underwater. _Rune… _Rune kept hitting him.

"Rune!"

Rune woke up, his arm coated and petrified in black energy. From the sky, Raven floated down, her eyes glowing white. "That's enough!" She commanded.

Rune looked back to the man beneath him. What was remaining of his teeth were covered red with blood pouring out his mouth. His nose was nearly completely destroyed, similarly bloody and his eyes had rolled back in his head as he hung limply from Rune's hand. Rune looked at his right fist, it was messily splattered a sloppy red with blood and saliva as it dripped off his knuckles slick with it. Rune quickly pressed his fingers to the man's neck; there was a pulse, but only just. "Call an ambulance" he ordered the girl who was watching terrified from behind the dumpster. She nodded and began to fumble in her purse. Raven released her the energy she had holding his arm and Rune stood, chest heaving both in exasperation and in shock at what he had done. "Get me out of here" he asked Raven quietly. She nodded as a black raven of ethereal energy spawned from the shadows of her cloak and enveloped them both before flying away into the night. Rune shivered as she released them on the shore of Titan's island, the towering 'T' standing in shadow above them held no protection from the late autumn wind. "Why are we here?" He asked Raven.

"Because you need to talk" she told him. "I went into your mind, unintentionally, but I did. No single person can hold that much pain, what happened to you after the world ended? You told us how you got the runes but nothing between there and turning up in Jump City." Rune ignored her as he picked up a stone and hurled it into the bay. Raven watched him for a few moments. "Will you ever tell me?"

"I don't know" Rune admitted, "forever is an awfully long while to make a promise for."

"And where does that leave… us?" Raven asked. The word sounded foreign on her tongue, alien, it had never belonged to her. All she knew was Rune had this way of grinning and her heart was immediately doused in impassioning flame, it was infuriating. It was also dangerous, the way her emotions could so easily get out of hand around him, she needed control, she could never act on wild impulses without someone else being forced to suffer the consequences. Beast Boy had berated her so many times about why she acted so cold and moody but he didn't understand, he would never understand, not without understanding her past and despite his reassurances that she was sure he'd spurt if she told him so, he would never understand. Rune could though, he had been a facet of Trigon's schemes once upon a time, he knew pain, he knew having abilities that he could see as a curse, not a gift. Was that why she felt the way she did for him? Because he was the first person she thought maybe had a chance of fully understanding her and so now she was throwing herself at him to keep him to stay? Raven shook her head angrily. _I will not throw myself at anyone. _But then the memory of how Malchior had manipulated her so easy, she had shut herself away in her room for weeks on end dedicating herself solely to helping him free from the confines of his book only to find he had tricked and used her for her own gains. She couldn't believe Rune would do that to her but coldly, she realised she could believe that he might not be totally sorry even if he did.

"I think…" Rune started, interrupting her thoughts. "I think maybe friends is best for everyone, lot less chance of getting hurt that way, and the stakes are lower."

Raven closed her eyes, his words made sense to her head but came like a lance to her heart. Why did it feel like that? _Damn him! _She cursed mentally. She felt like slapping him again. But she did not. She betrayed no emotion inside her, wrapped up in her cloak fluttering softly in the wind. "I thought so too" she replied. It was true technically, she did think friends was best but Passion was whispering in her mind that maybe she didn't want what was best for everyone, and Passion was being annoyingly convincing. Rune nodded and Raven turned away to walk back up to the tower as Rune hurled a rock with a lot more strength behind it as he imagined the rock being all the situations that were forcing their into his mind telling him how things could go wrong if he stayed close to Raven, he wanted them gone. She was beautiful, even she didn't see that herself, she was hopeful and reserved, considerate of others before herself and was able to not take others seriously, particularly Beast Boy but it was still a trait that made a small grin decorate his face whenever they were in the same room. _But I can't… _The memories Raven had forced up flashed again through his mind, him screaming at the silhouette to stay away with a hand covered in flashing lights of alien designs carved into his flesh, she was torn between her safety and her care for him, then the lights exploded out of his flesh and there was that piercing scream through the air, that scream… Rune tore himself away from the memories, breathing hard as the first bead of sweat began to trickle from his temple. Rune knelt down at the water's edge and splashed some up into his face, forcing him to cool, even though the night was already cold. He looked back down at his reflection and quickly turned away, following the path after Raven, needing a decent sleep as the first lights of the approaching dawn began to creep over the horizon.


End file.
